Contact: Eva Schultze-Berndt
Email: eva.schultzeberndt@uni-graz.at

Call Deadline: 05-Nov-2007 

Representation of Actions, States and Events in Classification Systems -
Universals and Typological Diversity (Theme Session ICLC 10, Krakow, 2007) 

Call for Abstracts for a Theme Session at the 10th International Cognitive
Linguistics Conference in Krakow, Poland, July 15-20, 2007

Topic: ''Representation of Actions, States and Events in Classification Systems
- Universals and Typological Diversity''

Organizers:
Bill McGregor, Arhus University, Denmark; linwmg@hum.au.dk
Eva Schultze-Berndt, Graz University, Austria; eva.schultzeberndt@uni-graz.at
Thekla Wiebusch, CRLAO, CNRS-EHESS, Paris, France; thekla.wiebusch@hotmail.fr

Abstracts:
Abstracts (for a 20 min. presentation) should be no longer than 500 words
(including examples and references) and be sent as attached word or text
document to Eva Schultze-Berndt by 5th November 2006.

Proposal text:
The theme session will bring together evidence from different languages and
disciplines to shed some light on features and criteria of human categorization
manifested specifically in the classification of actions, states and events.
This domain includes a wide array of abstract notions and concepts usually
associated with verbs. Their representation in different types of classification
systems has received much less attention than ''nominal'' concepts such as
animals, plants or artifacts. The classification systems taken into
consideration here manifest themselves in either (spoken or signed) language or
script: 
- Numeral classifier systems, for nouns and for verbs;
- Closed-class verbs functioning as classifiers in complex predicates;
- Semantic determinatives in writing systems;
- Event classifiers in sign languages.

The wide range of languages in which we find these classification systems allow
cross-linguistic comparison along several dimensions. At the same time, the
parallel existence of several classification systems in the same languages makes
it possible to distinguish system specific features from cognitive universals. 

Questions to be addressed in this theme session include: 
- What are basic concepts, i.e. basic actions, states or events in the different
systems and languages, and are there universals?
- What kind of domain structure do we find: e.g. prototype members, graded
membership, typical taxonomical or schematic relations between the classifying
and classified element? 
- Which basic features of actions, states or events - e.g. direction, speed,
change of state, duration, repetition, agency, tools, human sensations etc. play
a role in the different classification systems? Are they parallel to features
found for living beings or artefacts, or do they form independent categories? 
- Are there correlations between the function or syntactic features of the
different systems and semantic properties? More specifically: in languages using
more than one of the classification systems, will they show a coherent picture
or systematically system-specific characteristics? 
- To what extent can we find synchronic and diachronic variation? Are there
universal tendencies of evolution, and in this case, can they be cognitively,
culturally or linguistically motivated?