École d'Été LLcD 2024 > Programme de l'école d'été et horaire des cours

École d'été - 12-14 septembre 2024

L'émergence des universaux du langage et leur statut cognitif

Amphithéâtre Georges Molinié, Maison de la Recherche, Sorbonne Université

28 Rue Serpente, 75006 Paris

Dans l'approche typologique fonctionnelle issue des travaux de Joseph Greenberg, les universaux du langage émergent à la suite de processus diachroniques qui se répètent d'une langue à l'autre et donnent naissance aux constructions en question. Bien que ce point de vue évolutionniste soit largement partagé, ses conséquences pour la recherche empirique sur les universaux du langage sont encore à explorer. Quelle est la nature des processus neurocognitifs qui amènent les locuteurs à créer de manière récurrente les mêmes constructions d'une langue à l'autre? Y-a-t-il de mécanismes généraux qui déterminent la propagation de ces constructions dans des différentes communautés de locuteurs (par exemple des mécanismes d'interaction sociale)? Y-a-t-il des mécanismes généraux dans l'acquisition du langage qui favorisent certaines constructions? Comment distinguer entre les effets de facteurs différents (développement de constructions particulières, transmission de ces constructions à l'intérieur de la communauté des locuteurs ou d'une génération de locuteurs à l'autre) pur des universaux particuliers? L'objectif de l'école thématique est de réunir de spécialistes de ces questions afin de faire le point sur l'état de l'art et de tracer des perspectives futures de recherche.

Cours

Veuillez noter que malheureusement, le cours de Theresa Biberauer intitulé "Variation et changement linguistique : perspectives génératives du 21e siècle" a dû être annulé à la dernière minute. Ce cours sera remplacé par un cours de Sonia Cristofaro (Sorbonne Université).

Sonia Cristofaro (Sorbonne Université) : Explaining language universals in diachronic perspective

In language typology, the research paradigm that originated from the work of Joseph Greenberg, language universals are empirically observed distributional patterns where languages recurrently display certain grammatical configurations as opposed to others. Explanations of these patterns are usually synchronically oriented: particular grammatical configurations are preferred over others cross-linguistically because their synchronic properties comply with functional principles of optimization of grammatical structure, such as economy or processing ease.

The general theoretical premises of the typological approach are, however, essentially diachronic in nature. Starting from Greenberg, practictioners of this approach have emphasized that language universals evolve through recurrent diachronic phenomena leading to the emergence, conventionalization, and retention of the same grammatical configurations in different languages over time. This raises a general issue of whether and how the assumed optimization principles actually play a role in these phenomena.

The course will discuss the known diachronic origins of some of the relevant configurations cross-linguistically. Attention will be focused on configurations pertaining to
word order, case marking alignment, and the use of overt and zero marking for different grammatival values. An ever growing body of evidence from grammaticalization studies and studies of language change in general show that the developmental processes that give rise to these configurations are triggered by the properties of particular source constructions and their contexts of use, rather than optimization principles pertaining to the synchronic properties of the resulting configuration. Also, individual configurations emerge through a diverse array of developmental processes, not amenable to a unified explanation in terms of general overarching principles.

These facts call for a source-oriented approach to language universals, one where the focus shifts form the synchronic properties of the relevant grammatical configurations to disentangling the effects of several different source constructions and diachronic phenomena that give rise to these configurations and shape their cross-linguistic distribution over time.

Course materials

Handout1

Handout 2

Handout 3

John A. Hawkins (University of California Davis & Cambridge University) : Processing Efficiency in Language Universals and in Contact-induced Language Change

This course will introduce students to an interdisciplinary research program on language universals and change that I have been pursuing for some years. Its basic premise is that major patterns of variation that we see in the grammars of the world’s languages today have been structured by general principles of efficiency in language use and communication. Evidence for these principles comes from languages permitting structural options from which selections are made in performance, e.g. between competing word orders and between relative clauses with a resumptive pronoun versus a gap. The preferences and patterns of performance within languages are reflected in the fixed conventions and patterns across grammars, leading to a “Performance-Grammar Correspondence Hypothesis”. This work provides a more empirical and grammar-external alternative to the explanation of language universals than the grammar-internal and UG approach of traditional generative linguistics, and it offers a long-standing foundation for the so-called “third factors” of more recent generative theorizing. The course will illustrate three major principles of processing efficiency that are clearly visible within and across languages, Minimize Domains, Minimize Forms and Maximize Online Processing, and give illustrative supporting data, including recent extensions of these principles and their applications in both psycho-linguistics and language typology. The course will also explore how language change occurs from this efficiency perspective. The preferences visible in language use can provide, on the one hand, a “language-internal” motivation for grammatical change, but an increasingly important determinant of change can be seen in language contact and bilingualism and the course will provide an efficiency-based approach to explaining when changes occur in these circumstances and when they do not. This will incorporate both psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic considerations, and a key efficiency principle of Maximize Common Ground in bilingual learning and use will be proposed.

A reading packet will be provided for students. The following are foundation papers and chapters:

Hawkins, J.A. (2014). Cross-linguistic Variation and Efficiency, ch.1 ‘Language variation and the performance-grammar-correspondence hypothesis’, ch.2 ‘Three general efficiency princi- ples’, pp.1-45, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Hawkins, J.A. (2012). ‘Les relations entre competence et performance en syntaxe’. In: J. François, ed., L’E ̇ventail des Compétences Linguistiques et la (Dé)valorization des Perfor- mances, Mémoires de la Société Linguistique de Paris Tome XXI, Peeters, Paris, 13-33.
Hawkins,J.A.&L.Filipovic (2024). ‘Bilingualism-induced language change:What can change, when and why?’, Linguistics Vanguard.

Course materials

Lecture 1

Lecture 2

Lecture 3

Martin Haspelmath (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig): Universals of grammar and cultural evolution

There are three main types of grammatical universals: word order universals, universals of co-expression (or polysemy), and universals of asymmetric grammatical coding. In this course, I will discuss a range of universals of coexpression and of coding (leaving aside word order) and and I will propose explanations in terms of cultural evolution. The latter is a fashionable term for what used to be called “diachrony”, but I will show how the analogy with biological evolution and adaptation provides additional insight. I will argue for the efficiency theory of asymmetric coding that I have been working on over many years, providing a range of examples from different languages. This theory relies on the idea of diachronic change as cultural evolution and adaptation. In addition, I will also highlight the importance of distinguishing between natural-kind concepts (as in generative grammar) and comparative concepts for cultural-evolutionary explanations.

Course materials

Handout 1

Handout 2

Horaire

12 semptembre 2024

9.15-9.25 Ouverture

9.30-11.30 John A. Hawkins

11.30-12.00 Discussion avec les étudiants

12.00-13.30 Déjeuner

13.30-15.30 Martin Haspelmath

15.30-16.00 Pause café

16.00-18.00 Sonia Cristofaro

13 septembre 2024

9.30-11.30 John A. Hawkins

11.30-12.00 Discussion avec les étudiants

12.00-13.30 Déjeuner

13.30-15.30 Martin Haspelmath

15.30-16.00 Pause café

16.00-18.00 Sonia Cristofaro

14 septembre 2024

9.30-10.30 John A. Hawkins

10.30-11.30 Martin Haspelmath

11.30-12.00 Pause café

12.00-13.00 Sonia Cristofaro

13.00-13.15 Clôture

Veuillez noter que les cours auront lieu dans l'Amphithéâtre Georges Molinié, au rez-de-chaussée de la Maison de la Recherche, tandis que les déjeuners et les pauses café seront servis dans le hall au deuxième étage.

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Informations pratiques

Frais d'inscription :

Tarif étudiant : 100 Euros
Tarif général : 120 Euros

Ces frais couvrent les cours, les matériels de cours, les déjeuners et les pauses café.

L'école peut accueillir jusqu'à 60 participants. Nous invitons les candidatures des doctorants et des chercheurs postdoctoraux.

Pour candidater, veuillez cliquer ici ou sur l'onglet "Candidature pour la participation à l'école d'été" sous "École d'été LLcD 2024" en haut à gauche de la page.

Il est possible que nous soyons en mesure d'offrir un soutien financier aux participants qui le demandent, selon leurs circonstances personnelles. Notez que cette aide ne concerne que le prix d'inscription et non pas les frais de déplacement et d'hébergement. Si vous souhaitez postuler pour ce soutien, merci de le préciser dans le formulaire de candidature.

Date limite de candidature : 25 juin 2024
Notification d'acceptation : 30 juin 2024

Personnes connectées : 32

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