Subject: workshop on complexity in language contact , acquisition and change

newsletter 1 . workshop on complexity in language contact , acquisition and change . 8 september 1998 , paris , france . in colaboration with the cnrs ( centre national de recherche scientifique ) , the lot ( netherlands graduate school of linguistics ) is organizing some workshops to create a forum to encourage the discussion between researchers in linguistics from the netherlands and france . one of the workshops is initiated by members of the university of amsterdam and has as its subject : complexity in language contact , acquisition and change . the workshop will take place on tuesday the 8th of september , starting at 14 . 30 until approximately 20 . 00h . the theme although there is a kind of dogma that all natural languages are equally complex , at least for certain subsystems of language there may well be differences in complexity . in discussions of processes of language change and first and second language acquisition the notion of complexity plays an important role . especially in creole studies simplicity and complexity implicitly have been dominant issues in the debate , but are seldom properly scrutinized . in this workshop we want to discuss the role of complexity in these domains , including grammatical theory , first and second language acquisition , language change and language contact - in order to shed light on controversial problems invoked by the term complexity in linguistics in general . the structure of the workshop the workshop is organized around three themes : creole languages , language acquisition and language change . each theme will be discussed by researchers from france and the netherlands in 10 minutes presentations , inspired by the following propositions . after these short presentations there will be time for discussion in each session . 1 . all languages have the same " costs / payment " balance , i . e . if a language becomes phonologically more simple , its morphological system will become more complex . [ cf . haugen 1976 : 286 ] 2 . all complexity in languages resides in the lexicon . [ cf . aronoff 1995 ] 3 . languages spoken within small communities are more complex than languages of large communities . [ cf . whinnom 1980 , hymes 1971 , mhlhusler 1996 ] 4 . language shift will in general lead to simplification , while borrowing will lead generally to more complex structures . [ cf . thomason & kaufman 1988 ] 5 . complexity does not play a role in first language acquisition , but it does in second language acquisition . [ cf . trudgill 1992 ] 6 . grammaticalization leads to greater complexity . [ labov 1990 , bickerton 1981 ] programme 14 . 30 chair and opening pieter muysken ( university of amsterdam / leiden ) 14 . 35 : introduction hadewych van rheeden ( university of amsterdam ) wouter kusters ( university of amsterdam ) 14 . 55 : language acquisition elisabeth van der linden ( university of amsterdam ) daniel veronique ( universit de la sorbonne nouvelle , paris iii ) colette noyau ( universit de paris x ) peter coopmans ( university of utrecht ) 15 . 55 : break 16 . 15 : creoles jacques arends ( university of amsterdam ) adrienne bruyn ( university of amsterdam ) karl gadelii ( university of gteborg ) andree tabouret - keller ( universit de strasbourg ) 17 . 15 : break chair : to be announced 17 . 35 : language change marc van oostendorp ( university of amsterdam / leiden ) fred weerman ( university of utrecht ) colette feuillard ( universit ren descartes , paris v ) muriel norde ( university of amsterdam ) francoise gadet ( universit de paris x ) 19 . 00 : general discussion . 20 . 00 : drinks and dinner . please let us know if you are interested to join this workshop . if you need more information , just contact wouter kusters and / or hadewych van rheeden : wouter . kusters @ let . uva . nl h . a . van . rheeden @ let . uva . nl another workshop will be held on wednesday the 9th , on the subject of competing principles in learners varieties , organized within the same joint programme of lot and cnrs . these workshops are immediately followed by the eurosla 8 conference on second language acquisition . for more information on the eurosla 8 look at http : / / www . kun . nl / ttmb / news . html . in the next newsletter the exact location of the workshop will be announced .
