ISTY - Typologie et Universaux Linguistiques

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INFORMATION STRUCTURING AND TYPOLOGY
(ISTY) :
Detachment constructions in languages and discourses
Program of the
CNRS Federation TUL (Typologie et Universaux Linguistiques, FR 2559),
Federation for Linguistic Typology and Universals
• Scientific coordinator
M.M.Jocelyne FERNANDEZ-VEST, Laboratoire de Langues et Civilisations à
Tradition Orale (LACITO, Laboratory for Oral Languages and Cultures), UMR
7107, CNRS – Universités Paris 3 & Paris 4
[email protected]
• Topic
Universal tendencies of Information Structuring: theory and description of
detachment constructions, their grammaticalization and evolution in the
relation oral-written language, in connection with language typology.
• Members
– Members from CNRS laboratories partaking in the Federation
(list of laboratories: http://www.typologie.cnrs.fr/spip.php?rubrique29)
1/ Researchers and University teachers
LACITO : Injoo Choi-Jonin, M.M.Jocelyne Fernandez-Vest, Zlatka Guentcheva-Desclés,
Pablo Kirtchuk, Marijana Petrovic-Rignault, Alice Vittrant
SFL :
Brenda Laca, Sophie Wauquier [Structures Formelles du Langage]
IKER :
Ricardo Etxepare.
[Centre de recherches sur la langue basque et
l’expression en langue basque]
LLF :
Marie-Claude Paris
[Laboratoire de Linguistique Formelle]
MODYCO : Danh Thành Do-Hurinville, [Modèles, Dynamiques, Corpus]
2/ PhD Students
LACITO : Jirasak Achariyayos (Paris 3), Marri Amon (Paris 3 and Tartu), San San Hnin Tun
(Paris 3), Hiromi Komagata (Paris 3), Yordanka Kozareva (Paris 3), Kafda Vergara
Esturaín (Paris 3), Asuka Matsumoto (Paris 4 and Warsaw)
SFL : Anna Kaglik (Paris 8).
– Members from French University teams:
Karl-Erland Gadelii (Scandinavian Studies Department, Paris 4), Marie-Ange Julia (CPGE
Henri IV & Centre Alfred Ernout, Paris 4).
– Correspondents abroad:
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Nomi Erteschik-Shir (Ben Gurion University) ; David Gil (Max Planck Institute, EVA,
Leipzig); Marja-Liisa Helasvuo (Turku) ; Larry Hyman (UC Berkeley) ; Elena Kalinina
(Academy of Sciences in Moscow) ; Ritva Laury (Helsinki) ; Helle Metslang (Tartu) ; Karl &
Renate Pajusalu (Tartu) ; Maria Polinsky (Harvard); Heete Sahkai (Institute of the Estonian
Language, Tallinn) ; Peter Slomanson (Århus) ; Robert Van Valin (Buffalo, NY &
Düsseldorf).
• Languages studied
Around thirty languages, starting from the specialty languages of the permanent
members of the program, i.e.:
• Indo-European languages – French and Romance, Celtic, Germanic
languages (English, German, Scandinavian languages), Slavic languages
(Bulgarian, Russian);
• Finno-Ugric and Uralic languages – Samic (Northern Sami and Anar
Sami), Fennic (Estonian, Finnish), Volgaic (both Mordvin), Hungarian and ObUgric languages;
• Amerindian languages (Quechua, Guarani);
• Ancient languages (Latin, Greek ; Aramaic);
• Indonesian languages (dialects of Sumatra and Riau);
• Hebrew – Biblical, michnic and modern;
• Basque;
• Standard Burmese and Arakanese dialect
• Chinese;
• Korean;
• Japanese;
• Thai;
• Vietnamese.
• Agenda and partnerships
• Already performed:
– 2 international Workshops
I. Structure Informationnelle et typologie des langues : marquage du
focus, constructions détachées, hiérarchie des enchaînements thématiques,
Université Paris 3 & Fédération TUL, 21-22.XI.2008.
II. Structure Informationnelle et typologie des questions et des réponses /
Information Structure and typology of questions and answers, Université Paris 3
& Laboratoire LACITO, 2-3.IV.2009.
– Launching Symposium
GRAMMAIRE DE L’INFORMATION ET TYPOLOGIE /
INFORMATION GRAMMAR AND TYPOLOGY, Fédération TUL & Université
Paris 3, 25-27.III.2010
(Program: http://lacito.vjf.cnrs.fr/colloque/grammaire/index.htm)
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• Length of the program: 4 years. Quarterly meetings and chat room starting
from 2010. Collective Publication Program (articles in peer-review journals and
books), International Colloquium at the end of the period. The program will rely
upon already well-established European partnerships – EVA (Evolutionary
Anthropology), Max Planck Institute, Leipzig; collaborative project ELDIA
(European Language Diversity for All), PCRD 7.
• Goals of the Program
We aim at analyzing and comparing
– in a set of typologically diverse languages (see above)
– and from distinct theoretical and methodological approaches:
one of the main process involved in Information Structuring
Detachment constructions (= detached Theme/Topic and the PostRheme/Mneme),
from the point of view of word order and prosody.
As it focuses on detachment constructions in a textual perspective,
this program will deal with
the impact of Initial Detachments (ID) and Final Detachments (FD)
on the structuring of the Rheme(/Focus),
and the role played by detachments in sentence combining.
We will particularly raise the following questions:
• Are detachment constructions favored by
some discourse registers (life story, impromptu speech…)
or by some speech situations (e.g. simultaneous interpretation vs.
consecutive interpretation ) ?
• Is it possible to establish a correlation between
the frequency of use of either construction (ID vs. FD)
and the morphosyntactic characteristics of the languages involved
– for instance with the argument structure (nuclear arguments vs. oblique
arguments, cf. Uralic languages with very rich case morphology) ?
Two main approaches will be confronted:
1. The formal semantics approach that gives a central role to syntax.
The question of configurationality of languages will be raised:
If some languages can be considered more configurational than others,
is it possible to show that configurational languages breed more truthconditional ambiguity than non configurational languages with a flexible word
order directly reflecting the semantic structure?
2. The functional and enunciative approach, that hypothesizes a double
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tripartite information organization (3 levels, 3 enunciative constituents), for
the study of both sentences and discourses, in a continuum //everyday
conversation – mediated discourse//
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In this perspective, the discourse organizational hierarchy (prosody – DIPs –
word order) builds upon the Minimal Communicative Utterance, common core of
binary strategies 1 (Theme-Rheme) and 2 (Rheme-Mneme).
The theorization of detachment operations is enriched
• on the one hand, by observing the typological evolution of oral languages
surrounded by a written environment,
• on the other hand, by applying the methodology to monolingual or
multilingual dialogues of simulated oral speech (theatre, novel) and to their
translations.
• Expected results
One of the strong points of this program lies in the fact that it combines
already well-established theories on widespread (mainly Indo-European)
languages
with the exploring, innovative though temptative works on languages
sparsely described from the points of view of syntax and information
structuring.
The systematic analysis of around thirty different languages,
Concentrated on the core processes of “thematization” and “postrhematization”,
– will enable us to take a stand on some deeply-held notions
(particularity of “configurational” languages ?,
absence of prosodic organization in tonal languages?
– and will provide arguments for a typologist vs. universalist interpretation
of Information Structuring.
Beyond measuring the orality degree of a language and/or its registers, the larger
issue of discourse linearization and its underlying cognitive processes leads us
back to the yet unsolved though classic question:
–––> What is a “neutral” word order?
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