Location: Bucharest, Romania
http://romanceturn9.unibuc.ro/
The Romance Turn brings together researchers from across Europe and overseas with the aim of sharing results and developing further research on the acquisition of Romance languages. Language acquisition studies both in children and adult learners are central to building our understanding of human language and how it develops in the brain. The field has witnessed a continuous growth during the past three decades. Over this period empirical evidence provided by research conducted on the acquisition of Romance languages such as Catalan, French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, and Spanish has become increasingly productive.
Following the success of previous Romance Turn conferences (Madrid (2004), Utrecht (2006), Southampton (2008), Tours (2010), Lisbon (2012), Palma de Mallorca (2014), Venice (2015), Bellaterra (2016)) this year the Romance Turn IX will be held in Bucharest, Romania, hosted by the Centre for the Study of Language Development and Linguistic Communication of the University of Bucharest.
Invited speakers for the main session are:
Maria Teresa Guasti (University of Milan-Bicocca)
Ana Lúcia Santos (University of Lisbon)
Antonella Sorace (University of Edinburgh)
The conference will host the workshop “Learnability in a parametric world” organized by Susann Fischer, Mario Navarro and Jorge Vega Vilanova, Hamburg University.
Invited speaker: Charles Yang (University of Pennsylvania)
Minimalist constraints and current evolutionary assumptions force us to rethink the concept of parameters and to see the content of UG as a minimized system (Boeckx 2006). Complexity in these terms is transferred to or seen as a consequence of general cognitive skills, the so-called third factor (Chomsky 2005). In this context, and focusing on third factors as an indispensable means of attaining explanatory adequacy, “learnability” seems to play a central role.However, until today, there seems to be no adequate explanation for learnability as a third factor and its effects on language acquisition, language variation and language change as a whole. In terms of the challenges that emerge from current theoretical proposals, the question remains what the components of learnability are. The main question addressed in the workshop is: What role does learnability play in the interaction between acquisition, change and parametric variation?
Call for papers (main session)
Papers are invited for oral and poster presentations in the area of the acquisition of Romance languages. All topics in the fields of (typical and impaired) first and second language acquisition from a generative perspective will be considered. Presentations will be 20 minutes long, followed by 10 minutes for discussion.
Authors are invited to submit an abstract (in English) for review. Abstracts must be at most one page long on an A4 with one-inch margins and typed in 12-point font. An optional second page may include data, references and diagrams. Abstracts must be anonymous. Submissions should be limited to one single-authored and one co-authored presentation (or two co-authored ones).
The abstracts for the main session must be submitted via email, as pdf attachments, to the following address: romanceturn9@lls.unibuc.ro
Please name the pdf file with the surname of the first author, use RT9Abstract in the subject header and include the details listed below:
- Name(s) of author(s)
- Title of talk
- Language acquisition context and target language(s)
- Affiliation(s)
- Email address of first author
Indicate whether you would like your abstract to be considered for oral or poster presentation or either of these options.
Important dates
Abstract submission deadline: April 8, 2018
Acceptance notification: May 6, 2018
Organizers: Larisa Avram, Anca Sevcenco, Veronica Tomescu
Call for papers (workshop)
For the workshop, papers are invited for oral presentations on different aspects of learnability:
- What is the state of the art concerning learnability in language acquisition and parametric theory?
- What are the essential components of learnability? e.g. algorithmic mechanisms, parsing, parametric space, etc. How are these components connected to computational efficiency?
- How does learnability constrain language change and language variation? Are there limits to variation?
- Are language-specific cognitive mechanisms necessary? What does “third factor” mean for a learnability theory?
Contributions from languages outside the Romance family are also welcome.
Presentations will be 20 minutes long, followed by 10 minutes for discussion. Authors are invited to submit an abstract (in English) for review.
Abstracts must be anonymous and must be at most one page long on an A4 with one-inch margins and typed in 12-point font. An optional second page may include data, references and diagrams.
Submissions should be sent in pdf format to: susann.fischer@uni-hamburg.de
Please use RT9_workshop in the subject header and include the details listed below:
- Name(s) of author(s)
- Title of talk
- Affiliation(s)
- Email address of first author
Important dates
Abstract submission deadline: April 8, 2018
Acceptance notification: May 6, 2018
For more info on the workshop: www.learnabilityworkshop.com