Call for Papers
WORKSHOP: THE CONCEPT OF LIGHTNESS: NEW PERSPECTIVES AND APPLICATIONS
LOCATION: University of Perugia (Italy), Department of Humanities
DATE: April 16, 2020
CONTACT PERSONS: Roberta Mastrofini (University of Perugia); Marco Bagli (University of Genova)
EMAILS: roberta.mastrofini@unipg.it; marco.bagli@unige.it
CONVENORS: Roberta Mastrofini, Marco Bagli
INVITED SPEAKER: Aleksandra Bagasheva (University of Sofia)
CONFERENCE FEES: € 35 students; € 45 Professors and Academics (the fee includes two coffee breaks and a lunch break).
Information can be found on linguistlist.org.
Our workshop proposal wants to bring together scholars working on lightness from any type of perspective ranging from syntax to semantics, in English, or even better in a cross-linguistic perspective. Diachronic, typological, and corpus-based approaches are welcome. The aim is to find an answer to the following unsolved questions:
What is a LVC and what is not? Should we consider “light” only the prototypical instances retrieved by Jespersen or postulate different degrees of lightness in verbal constructions? And, if so, how, and by which parameters is lightness assessed?
Would it be plausible to say that any lexical predicate may turn “light” under specific syntagmatic conditions? If so, which ones?
Is lightness only a verbal property?
Can lightness in LVEs be the result of a metaphorical shift? If so, could a semantic cognitive approach be relevant?
How can lightness be considered from a Cognitive Linguistics approach? Is it a matter of conceptual metaphor extension (Lakoff, 1990; Lakoff & Johnson, 1999, 2003)?
When did lightness emerge, in a diachronic perspective? Can we apply Prototype Theory to distinguish LVCs from LVEs?
Students and scholars are asked to submit an abstract of max 500 words (including examples, excluding references) to: roberta.mastrofini@unipg.it or marco.bagli@unige.it. Deadline for abstract submission is February 15, 2020. Notification of acceptance will be given by March 1, 2020.