[Histling-l] International Morphology Meeting 21

[Claire Bowern]

*21st International Morphology Meeting (IMM21)*

Date: 28-Aug-2024 - 30-Aug-2024
Location: Vienna, Austria
Web Site: https://www.wu.ac.at/en/bizcomm/events/imm21/

Meeting Description:

As in the past, the next Viennese IMM will again be a thematically open
venue hosting papers on all kinds of topics related to morphology.
Workshops up to a limit of eight papers are welcome on any topic in
morphology, excluding the meeting’s main topic. This time, the main topic
will be “Historical morphology and morphological theory”.

Call for Papers:

While the first 100 years of the language sciences concentrated on the
historical study of languages to the point of exclusivity, with the advent
of structuralism and later generative grammar, the synchronic approach
became dominant in the middle of the 20th century. Several decades ago, it
may even have seemed as if historical linguistics was on the wane, but new
generations of linguists have rediscovered the diachronic study of
language, not as an end in itself, but with an eye to what historical
linguistics can contribute to our understanding of human language in
general. The dynamics of language change in fact often provides privileged
access to the inner workings of language. In an endeavor to elaborate a
comprehensive theory of human language, historical linguistics,
psycholinguistics and the study of language acquisition, language typology
and grammatical description complement each other in a complex interplay.
If we understand why languages change continually, and why they do so in
certain ways and not others, we have gone a long way in getting a grip on
the nature of human language.

Morphology is present in human languages to vastly different degrees,
ranging from just some compounding in highly isolating languages to the
morphological exuberance of polysynthetic languages. It has been called a
luxury, a logically unnecessary part of human language, and some theories
of language have even tried to dissolve this nuisance in phonology, syntax,
and semantics. Instead of banning the troublemaker, however, it could be
more fruitful to try to explain why morphology arises in language after
language, and why it evolves in certain ways but not in others. Once we
have answered these and related questions, our understanding of human
language will be greatly enhanced.
Participants who want to contribute to the central topic of the meeting are
kindly asked not to lose sight of this general-linguistic perspective and
to make it clear how their case study relates to it.

Keynote speakers:
Peter Arkadiev (University of Mainz)
Claire Bowern (Yale University)
Angela Ralli (University of Patras)

Organizers:
Francesco Gardani (University of Zurich)
Franz Rainer (WU Vienna)

Conference manager:
Elisabeth Peters (WU Vienna)

Host:
WU Vienna, Welthandelsplatz 1, Vienna, Austria

Important dates:
Submission of abstracts: 1 September - 31 October 2023
Notification of acceptance for abstracts: 31 December 2023
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