Session 1: 23rd January

Napoli, D. J., & Sanders, N. (2024). An approach to path movement in the diachronic study of sign languages: Biomechanics and nonarbitrariness. Diachronica, 41(2), 203–250. https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.23033.nap

Session 2: 30th January

Nyst, V., & Schuller, A. (2024). Mother left, father right: Artificial signs and diachronic change in sign language dialects in Belgium and the Netherlands. Diachronica, 41 (2), 251–298. https:⁠/⁠/doi.org/10.1075/dia.21052.nys 

Session 3: 6th February

Trips, C., & Rainsford, T. (2022). Tolerating subject-experiencers? Yang’s tolerance principle applied to psych verbs under contact in Middle English. Journal of Historical Syntax, 6, 1–43.

Session 4: 13th February

Rinke, Esther, and Cristina Flores, 'Systematic and predictable variation in heritage grammars: The role of complexity, diachronic change, and linguistic ambiguity in the input', in Roberta D’Alessandro, Michael T Putnam, and Silvia Terenghi (eds), Heritage Languages and Syntactic Theory (Oxford, 2025; online edn, Oxford Academic, 24 Feb. 2025), https://doi.org/10.1093/9780191987731.003.0004

Session 5: 20th February

Nagy N. 2024. What Heritage Language Speakers Tell Us about Language Variation and Change. In: Heritage Languages: Extending Variationist Approaches. Cambridge University Press: 242-254. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108983624.010 

Session 6: 27th February

D’Alessandro, Roberta, Putnam, Michael T. and Terenghi, Silvia. "Syntactic change in diachrony versus contact-induced change: two sides of the same coin?" The Linguistic Review. https://doi.org/10.1515/tlr-2025-0012

Session 7: 6th March - Invited Lecture

Note: Change in TIME to 3-4pm and VENUE to Lecture Room 1.11 in the Classics faculty (First floor, access via entrance 2 or 3)

We are delighted to host Prof George Walkden (University of Konstanz) during our session, to give an invited lecture. George Walkden is Professor of English Linguistics and General Linguistics at the University of Konstanz.  He is principal investigator of the ERC-funded project STARFISH. His research focuses on syntactic change, language variation, and the interface between theoretical linguistics and quantitative corpus methods.

Title: Hierarchical universals, probabilities and linearization change

Abstract: Hierarchical universals such as FOFC and Caha’s (2009) case hierarchy make strong predictions for diachrony: no language should pass through a synchronic state in which the universal is violated. This talk presents new evidence from diachronic corpora for probabilistic effects corresponding to these two hierarchical universals, in the histories of English and Balkan Slavic respectively, and a theory of grammar competition that derives these effects.

Session 8: 13th March

Keskin, C. 2025. ‘Balkan Turkic as a model for understanding contact-induced changes in Turkish’ in Shanley E. M. Allen, Mareike Keller, Artemis Alexiadou & Heike Wiese (eds.). 2025. Linguistic dynamics in heritage speakers: Insights from the RUEG group. (Current Issues in Bilingualism 4). Berlin: Language Science Press. https://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/473