Multidisciplinary Approaches to Discourse 2008

The Department of Literature, Area Studies and European Languages, University of Oslo, is pleased to announce the

7th International Workshop on

Multidisciplinary Approaches to Discourse 2008 (MAD 08):

Linearisation and Segmentation in Discourse

February 20-23, 2008, Lysebu, Oslo, Norway

Multidisciplinary Approaches to Discourse 2008 (MAD 08) is the seventh in a series of small-scale, high-quality workshops that have been organised (approx.) every second year since 1995. Its aim is to bring together researchers from different linguistic disciplines to exchange information and learn from each other on a common topic of investigation. The theme of MAD 08 is Linearisation and Segmentation in Discourse.

CALL FOR PAPERS (closed)

Language as well as other forms of communication are inseparably tied to some kind of linear-sequential form of presentation, due to the linear-sequential nature of the media on which they operate. Linearisation in its turn presupposes segmentation, i.e. decisions concerning the size and type of units to be brought into a sequential order at various levels. In written and spoken language, for example, it has to be decided whether a piece of information can and should be realised as a word, a phrase, a clause, a (complex) sentence or even as a sentence sequence or paragraph. And the relevant units have to be arranged in a certain order that is determined - in part, at least - by the rules of grammar but also – at higher levels of discourse – by other principles. We are interested in identifying and defining such principles. What principles govern the segmentation of the information to be (explicitly) conveyed? What do the minimal discourse units look like, which kinds of complex structure do they build and how are these structures separated from each other?

The aim of this workshop is to bring together researchers from different linguistic disciplines (e.g., psycholinguistics, contrastive linguistics/translation studies, computational linguistics, discourse studies), and, if possible, also from other disciplines in which the linearisation and segmentation of 'content' or information is constitutive (e.g., in music or film). We invite contributions on topics and questions such as the following (the list may be extended):

Discourse units and segmentation:

• Which are the (minimal) units of discourse, and how are they marked and separated from each other? For example, which role does punctuation play in written discourse, and pauses and intonation in spoken language?

Linearisation and its relation to nonlinear linguistic and conceptual structures:

• How are linear sequences of discourse units mapped onto complex (potentially hierarchical) conceptual structures? (Perception perspective)
• How are complex (potentially hierarchical) conceptual structures mapped onto linear sequences of discourse units? (Production perspective)
• How do notions like salience, discourse prominence, foreground(ing)/background(ing) etc. relate to linearity?
• Cohesion / coherence and linearity
  

Perspective and linearisation:

• Perspective and subjectivity in discourse: How is information presented and what is the role of relations “in the world” relative to the order of presentation by the speaker?
• How do the linguistic notions of perspective relate to perspective in other media?
  

Linearisation and segmentation across languages:

• To what extend do (the grammars of) different languages impose different constraints on linearisation and segmentation?
• What are the implications for multilingual activities such as translation or multilingual text generation?
  

Linearisation and segmentation in different media:

• in electronic media such as e-mail and chat
• in media combining language and pictures, e.g., film, cartoons
• in music (with and without language)

Keynote speakers:

• Thomas Pechmann (Univ. of Leipzig) on Linearisation and segmentation in music and language
• Russell S. Tomlin (Univ. of Oregon) on Attention and time: temporal phasing in event representations and language production (preliminary title)
• Cathrine Fabricius-Hansen (Univ. of Oslo) on Segmentation and linearisation from a cross-linguistic perspective (preliminary title)

Workshop location:
The workshop and lodging will be at Lysebu, a conference center  in the middle of one of Oslo's major skiing areas (for cross-country as well as down-hill) which is accessible by public transport (more information under location).

Attendance:
Following the tradition of the earlier workshops, the total number of participants will be limited to (approx.) 30 persons. Speakers of accepted papers are automatically granted a place; the remaining ones are assigned on a first-come-first-serve basis.

Abstract submission:

We invite extended abstracts in PDF, RTF or Word format. Abstracts must not be longer than ten pages (including figures and references), using 12 pt font, 1.5 line spacing, with 2.5 cm margins on all sides. Please include your name, affiliation and e-mail address at the top of the page, directly below the title. All abstracts will be reviewed  by members of the program committee. For final versions of accepted abstracts, precise formatting instructions (for Word) will be issued.

(Abstract submission is now closed. Instructions for final versions of accepted papers are here.)

With previous workshops in the series, selected papers have later been published in special issues of journals or as an edited volume in a relevant series (e.g., for the 2005 workshop: M. Grabski et al. (eds.) Salience. Multidisciplinary perspectives on its function in discourse, to appear in the Mouton-de Gruyter series 'Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs' [TiLSM]). We are planning on following this approach for MAD 08 as well.

Program Committee:
Bergljot Behrens (University of Oslo, Norway)
Liesbeth Degand (Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium)
Cathrine Fabricius-Hansen (University of Oslo, Norway)
Alistair Knott (University of Otago)
Wiebke Ramm (University of Oslo, Norway)
Ted Sanders (University of Utrecht)
Manfred Stede (University of Potsdam, Germany)

Important dates:

• Call for Papers: July 16, 2007 (1st call), August 30, 2007 (2nd call), October 5, 2007 (3rd call - extended deadline)
• Submission deadline: October 26, 2007 (closed)
• Notification of acceptance: ca. November 30, 2007
• Final versions of papers due: Monday, January 7, 2008
• Deadline for registration: Friday,  January 4, 2008
• Workshop: February 20-23, 2008

Organizers:

Wiebke Ramm, University of Oslo
Cathrine Fabricius-Hansen, University of Oslo

Previous MAD workshops:

- 1995 Egmond-aan-zee, NL
- 1997 Utrecht, NL
- 1999 Edinburgh, UK
- 2001 Ittre, BE
- 2003 Driebergen, NL
- 2005 Chorin, DE

Conference hosted by
Department of Literature, Area Studies
and European Languages
Faculty of Humanities
University of Oslo