phonoloblog | all things phonology | camba.ucsd.edu/phonoloblog

A call for papers is out (on LINGUIST List) for NELS 38, to be held at the University of Ottawa October 26-28. The call deadline is Saturday, June 9 Monday, July 9.

Of particular interest to phonoloblog readers: a special session on phonology.

The phonology special session is entitled ‘Abstractness without innateness?’ The invited speaker is Bruce Hayes from UCLA. Some of the founding assumptions of Generative Phonology involve abstract units such as distinctive features, timing units, syllables, and constraints. The innateness of these units has been seen as an important part of their nature. Recent work has sought to undermine the claim that innate primitives are necessary for phonological theory, often drawing more directly upon more concrete factors such phonetics and language change as sources of explanation. However, a reduction in the explanatory role of innateness does not entail a reduction in the role of abstractness in phonology. We are soliciting abstracts for talks addressing the role of abstractness in phonology at a time when innateness is under attack, e.g.: (i) Evidence for the existence of abstract units in phonology, independent of assumptions about innate abstract units, e.g. in acquisition, variation, change, production, perception, processing, etc.; (ii) Evidence for sources of abstract units other than Universal Grammar; (iii) Evidence that abstract units must be innate.

Contacts:
Marc Brunelle
Marie-Hélène Côté
Jeff Mielke

The program(me) for the 15th Manchester Phonology Meeting is here (in .pdf form). (Via LINGUIST List.)

So that’s who’s in charge of the schwa sound at dictionary.com! (Further background here.)

Breaking news (to me): blick is an actual word of English.

Yup, I fully admit it. Until very recently, I never actually picked up a single dictionary and checked to see whether blick was in it. I just recall the feeling of my own first exposure¹ to the example as being so effective that it never even occurred to me to double-check it. But now I see that Dictionary.com has a definition, as does the OED (if you have access). Prolly others, too, but why keep checking?

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Experimental and Theoretical Advances in Prosody
April 11-13, 2008
Cornell University (Ithaca, NY)

Invited Speakers:
Charles Clifton, Jennifer Cole, Laura Dilley, Dan Jurafsky, Janet Fodor, Shari Speer, Mark Steedman, Karsten Steinhauer, Sun-Ah Jun, Mats Rooth, and Elisabeth Selkirk

Submission Deadline: Friday, January 18, 2008

Just to keep you posted, there will be two days of phonology at GLOW XXX in Tromsø — stop by if you’re in the neighborhood!

On Wednesday, April 18, there will be a GLOW Workshop on Segmental Inventories, featuring talks by Ricardo Bermúdez-Otero, Daniel Currie Hall, Adam Wayment & Luigi Burzio & Donald Mathis & Robert Frank, Karthik Durvasula, Paul Boersma, Bruce Morén, and Keren Rice.

On Thursday, April 19, there will be a daylong phonology session as part of the GLOW XXX Main Session. We’ll hear from Nieke Roos & Paula Fikkert, Pétur Helgason & Cathie Ringen, Gunnar Hansson, Akinbiyi Akinlabi, Mohamed Lahrouchi, Dan Karvonen, and Andrew Martin.
More details at CASTL’s webpage.

On June 7 and 8, 2007, the Meertens Instituut in Amsterdam and the Phonetics Institute of the University of Amsterdam jointly organize a workshop on segments and tone. Altogether 15 talks will be presented on many aspects of the relationship between consonantal and vocalic features and tone.

Participation in this workshop is free, but it would be appreciated if you announce your plans to come. A programme with all the abstracts can be found here.