Call for Papers
The interest in the study of Heritage Languages has been increasing over two decades (starting in the United States and progressively developing more recently in Europe). This is due, among other things, to the fact that they provide a unique window into the mechanisms of language change and the functioning of the bilingual brain in specific conditions. Among the existing studies, some have focused on the structural properties of heritage grammars.
Heritage Language Syntax is a workshop initiated at the University of Utrecht within the ERC Microcontact (https://microcontact.sites.uu.nl/hls-2/), with the aim of investigating the syntactic properties of heritage grammars.
This third (and first in-presence) edition of Heritage Language Syntax will be organized in Paris within the IRN Heritage Languages in Europe (coordinator Elena Soare, University of Paris 8 & CNRS): https://www.umr7023.cnrs.fr/les-langues-dheritage-en-france
In this edition, we seek to investigate the issue of complexity in the syntax of heritage languages. It is often assumed that these grammars are “simplified”, or even incomplete, but there is good evidence that in certain conditions heritage speakers prefer complex or more marked constructions to simpler ones.
We encourage contributions that address the following questions (but not only):
- how can we define and measure complexity in heritage languages?
- what does it mean for a grammar to be “simple” or “incomplete”?
- under what conditions are complex structures avoided by heritage speakers? under what conditions are complex structures preferred by heritage speakers?
- what are the properties of reduced/tenseless domains (infinitives, gerunds, simple roots) in heritage grammars?
- how do heritage grammars inform linguistic theory on categorization?
- what can be said about the interplay between syntactic complexity and processing costs?
Submission guidelines
Abstracts should be anonymous and no longer than two A4 pages, including references and examples, with margins of at least 2.5 cm, font size 12, single-spaced. Submissions are limited to a maximum of one individual and one joint abstract per author.
Presentations will be 30 minutes, followed by 10 minutes for discussion.
All abstracts should be submitted in PDF format via Easychair (https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=hls2022) no later than July 31, 2022. Notification of acceptance will be given by September 1st, 2022.
All questions about submissions should be emailed to: hlsparis2022@gmail.com
Dates
DL for submissions – July 31
Notification – September 1st
Conference – Oct 20-21