Grammar and genre:  interfaces and influences, October 24th – 26th, 2012, Turku, Finland, organized by The Linguistic Association of Finland (in collaboration with the Faculty of Humanities of Åbo Akademi University)

Presentation

Variation is one of the key themes in modern grammatical studies, and its investigation highlights the role of contextual factors in the structure of language. These factors can be on many levels and of many different types. The mere genre to which a text belongs potentially dictates a variety of linguistic structures. (For studies about genre see e.g. Bakhtin 1986 to begin with, and more recently Martin & Rose 2008, Biber & Conrad 2009, and Dorgeloh & Wanner 2010.)

This symposium aims to study the interfaces between grammar and genre: the purpose is to investigate how genre affects grammatical choices. How are genre distinctions reflected in grammar, be it for example literary vs. media genres, or distinctions such as argumentative, informative, persuasive, expressive, or narrative genres? Is a specific genre belonging to a particular domain, e.g. sport news vs. economy news, characterized by certain grammatical choices? Possible genre distinctions are various, and both empirical questions related to the theme and more theoretical implications and reflections thereof are welcome.

We would like to bring together linguists from different fields: linguists studying languages with a small number of speakers, linguists whose data come from languages with millions of speakers and a wide variety of institutionalized genres, theoretically oriented linguists to discuss the implications, as well as linguists with more empirical concerns.

We warmly welcome papers related to these questions. Possible topics for talks include, but, as usual, are not restricted to, the following:

• How does the grammarian take into account the belonging of the data to a certain genre? If the available data is restricted to a particular genre, how does this affect the results? How does the field worker react to this?
• How does the linguist identify the genre in question?
• Why do some grammatical constructions appear only in a specific genre?
• Is grammar one and only for a given language? How do we account for Coseriu’s distinction sistema - norma social/individual - hablar concreto in empirical, data-driven linguistics?
• How can we use the outcomes of stylistics in modern grammatical studies (cf. Bally’s stylistics a century ago), that is not only in the literary sense but to explore variation in grammar? What is the relationship between genre and style?
• How does the speaker manipulate grammar to create a genre?
• The concept of genre and language learning
• Genre in different domains
• Genre and language evolution
• Genre and language contacts: Does genre play a role in code switching?

Invited plenary speakers:

• Maarten Mous, Leiden University
• Maria Vilkuna, Institute for the Languages of Finland
• Tuija Virtanen-Ulfhielm, Åbo Akademi University
• Anja Wanner, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Scientific committee:

• Heidrun Dorgeloh
• Kjersti Fløttum
• Jyrki Kalliokoski
• Ritva Laury
• Jan Nuyts
• María José Serrano
• Susanna Shore
• Anna Solin
• Geoff Thompson

Organizing committee:

• Meri Larjavaara
• Sonja Dahlgren
• Arja Hamari
• Leena Maria Heikkola
• Lotta Jalava
• Santra Jantunen
• Pekka Posio
• Ilona Rauhala
• Erika Sandman
• Maija Sirola
• Elina Tapio
• Mikko Virtanen
• Katja Västi
• Milja Väänänen

Abstract submission:

Please send your abstract  no later than May 21, 2012

Online submission: https://www.confitur.net/en/conferences/grammar-and-genre

• The length of abstracts should not exceed 500 words (excluding data and references).
• Abstracts will be evaluated by the members of the scientific committee and also by the organizing committee.
• Letters of acceptance will be sent by June 15, 2012.

Key dates:

• EXTENDED DEADLINE for abstract submission: MAY 21, 2012
• Notification of acceptance: JUNE 15, 2012

Activities:

• Presentations by the invited speakers
• Presentations by other participants
• Posters
• Workshops

References:

• Bakhtin, M. 1986: Speech genres and other late essays. Translated by Vern W. McGee. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press.
• Biber, D. & S. Conrad 2009: Register, genre and style. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Dorgeloh, H. & A. Wanner (eds) 2010: Syntactic variation and genre, Berlin/New York:  De Gruyter Mouton.
• Martin, J. R. & D. Rose 2008: Genre relations. Mapping culture. London: Equinox.

For more information please visit the webpage of the symposium at https://www.confitur.net/en/conferences/grammar-and-genre