Workshop: The syntax at the vP edge in African languages

We are happy to announce the workshop "The syntax at the vP edge in African languages" as the third installment of the series "The syntax and semantics of African languages (SASAL III). The workshop will take place hybrid. Part of the talks will be at the conference venue at the Campus Westend of the Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, other talks will take place over Zoom.

Register now for the workshop!

Description

Recent years have seen a heightened interest in research into previously undocumented and understudied languages, particularly on the African continent. The SASAL (Syntax and Semantics of African Languages) workshop series is intended to continue this line of research and to provide a forum for linguists working on these languages to exchange ideas and theoretical approaches to a wide range of phenomena.

As part of our DFG-funded project “The VP-periphery in Mabia languages”, we are happy to announce the third installment in this workshop series, SASAL III, which will focus on the syntactic processes taking place at the vP edge. For example, it has become clear that information-structural notions like focus do not only impact movement to the clausal left periphery (see Amaechi 2020¹ for Igbo (Volta-Niger), Issah 2020² for Dagbani (Mabia), a.o.) but that they also play a role for the vP edge, in triggering the (sometimes obligatory) presence of certain particles. Take, for example, the sentence pair in (1) from Gurene (Mabia), where the post-verbal particle 'la' is obligatory in cases of in-situ focus, including cases of in-situ wh-questions.

In addition to information-structural marking, the area around the vP edge, i.e. the position immediately above and below it, is of course the area of the clause where most of the tense, aspect, mood (TAM), and negation marking takes place, as well as the encoding of the conjoint/disjoint alternation (for Bantu cf. van der Wal & Hyman 2017³). Frequently, all these processes interact with each other, very often in non-trivial ways. But possible interactions are not limited to these elements, as it has been argued that even A'-movement out of the vP phase can have an observable impact.

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Invited speakers

Samuel Atintono (Accra College of Education)

Doreen Georgi (University of Potsdam)

Samuel Issah (University of Education Winneba)

Maria Kouneli (Leipzig University)

Abdul-Razak Sulemana (University of Ghana)

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Program

June 29th

09:00-09:40	Introduction and project report Daniel Aremu, Emir Sultan Berber, Ateş İsmail Çalışır, Anke Himmelreich, Johannes Mursell, Katharina Hartmann (Goethe University Frankfurt)	(in person)
09:40-10:40	The syntax of coordinated pronouns in Dagbani focus constructions Samuel Issah (INVITED) (University of Education Winneba)	(Zoom) Chair: Katharina + Anke
10:40-11:10	Coffee Break
11:10-11:50	Long distance movement in Turkana Leonie Barabas-Weil (Leipzig University)	(in person) Chair: Johannes + Emir
11:50-12:50	Aspectual marking in Gurene: A case of morphology-syntax interaction Samuel Atintono (INVITED) (Accra College of Education)	(Zoom) Chair: Johannes + Emir
12:50-14:30	Lunch
14:30-15:10	Focus sensitivity and the Antisymmetry theory of syntax in Kusaal Daniel Aremu (Goethe University Frankfurt)	(in person) Chair: Anke + Johannes
15:10-15:50	Contrastive focus and low verb doubling in Dzə Philip Duncan, Peace Benson & John Gluckman (University of Kansas)	(Zoom) Chair: Anke + Johannes
15:50-16:20	Coffee Break
16:20-17:00	Relativization in Lobi Shweta Akolkar, Rebecca Jarvis & Sansan Claude Hien (UC Berkeley)	(Zoom) Chair: Daniel + Ateş
17:00-17:40	Unexpected consequences of v as a secondary Case-licenser in Lobi Shweta Akolkar, Sansan Claude Hien & Kang Franco Liu (UC Berkeley)	(Zoom) Chair: Daniel + Ateş
19:00-	Conference dinner at Dauth-Schneider

June 30th

09:30-10:10	Unifying focus constructions in Grassfields Bantu Gratiana Linyor Ndamsah & Paul Roger Bassong (University of Yaounde 1)	(Zoom) Chair: Katharina + Johannes
10:10-11:10	That-trace effects in Igbo Doreen Georgi (INVITED) (University of Potsdam)	(in person) Chair: Katharina + Johannes
11:10-11:40	Coffee Break
11:40-12:20	On the syntax of tense and aspect in Likpakpaanl Samuel Acheampong (Goethe University Frankfurt)	(in person) Chair: Daniel + Emir
12:20-13:40	Lunch
13:40-14:40	Implicit arguments in Buli Abdul-Razak Sulemana (INVITED) (University of Ghana)	(in person) Chair: Anke + Ateş
14:40-15:40	Movement within vP: the case of possessor raising in Kipsigis Maria Kouneli (INVITED) (Leipzig University)	(in person) Chair: Anke + Ateş

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Registration and venue

The workshop takes place at the Goethe University Frankfurt, Campus Westend, PEG building 1.G135. The campus can be reached by walking, biking, car or public transport (we recommend to download the RMV App to check for connections).

If you would like to attend the workshop in person or over Zoom, we kindly ask you to register. Only registered people will receive the link for the Zoom meetings.

To register, please use this form: Go to online registration

How to find the room

Look for the PEG building on Campus Westend on the map. The room is on the second floor (go up the stairs), follow the long hallway until the room.

How to find the Zoom meeting

In order to participate via Zoom you first have to register. Registered participants will receive the Zoom link via e-mail.

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Organizers

Daniel Aremu

Katharina Hartmann

Anke Himmelreich

Johannes Mursell