Workshop on the Correlates of Verb-Initial Word Order; Tucson, Arizona; February 2003

University Of Arizona, Tucson AZ

Investigators

Abstract

A classic means of grouping languages typologically is in terms of the order of their basic constituents: subject, object, and verb. In traditional typological literature, these groups are thought to correlate with other syntactic phenomenon. Most research on these correlates has focused on western European languages, which primarily exhibit subject-verb-object (SVO) or subject-object-verb (SOV) orders. Although these studies has been fruitful, more attention needs to be given to languages that display other orders, particularly verb-subject-object (VSO) ordering. VSO ordering characterizes less than nine percent of the world's languages. Examples of VSO languages are Irish, Welsh, Arabic, Chamorro, Berber, Breton, Samoan, and Tongan. VSO ordering relatively rare, and it is highly problematic in terms of theoretical syntax. This has led to considerable controversy among scholars with respect to the degree to which most or all of the VSO languages share specific syntactical properties. This award will support a workshop that will bring together about 18 leading scholars representing diverse language families and different theoretical orientations to share their findings regarding verb-initial word-order correlates and to discuss the implications of structural approaches to word order and to the predictive power of analyses to word-order correlations. The workshop is scheduled to be held in Tucson, Arizona, in February 2003. In addition to invited speakers, participation also will be open to other individuals who submit abstracts of presentations for anonymous review beforehand. Outcomes are the workshop are expected to be in the form of a compilation of papers presented in a special issue of a journal or in a book. This workshop will help advance linguistics by increasing communication among linguists who have employed different theoretical perspective and by increasing knowledge of how expanded understanding of VSO languages can advance understanding of syntax and linguistic theory as a whole. The workshop also will advance understanding about VSO languages, many of which, like Irish, are in danger of extinction.