Return to Project List

ESRC seminar series:

 

CHALLENGES FOR INFLECTIONAL DESCRIPTION

 

R45126450496: January 1997 - December 1998

extended to June 1999

 

Description (from end of award report)

 

This seminar series involved the Universities of Brighton, Essex, London (School of Oriental and African Studies - SOAS), Surrey and Sussex, with additional participants (other than the guest speakers) from Cambridge, Cardiff Institute of HE, Imperial College, Kentucky and University College London. Eight seminars were held according to the proposal. We were opportunistic about our invitations and the seminars were run under budget. We are grateful for the opportunity to run a further two seminars, still well within the original budget. Of the total of ten, three were held at Essex, three at Surrey, two at Sussex and one each at Brighton and SOAS.

 

Outside speakers

 

Nine seminars involved an invited guest speaker:

 

speaker

affiliation

language discussed

venue

Prof. Keren Rice

University of Toronto

Slave (Athabaskan)

Sussex

Prof. Daniel Everett

University of Pittsburg

Pirahã

Surrey

Prof. Jean-Yves Urien

&

Prof. Gregory Stump

University of Rennes & University of Kentucky, visiting Essex at the time

Breton

Essex

Prof. Nicholas Evans

University of Melbourne

Mayali

SOAS

Prof. Marianne Mithun

University of California, Santa Barbara

Mohawk and Yup’ik

Essex

Prof. Alan Timberlake

University of California, Berkeley

Lithuanian

Surrey

Prof. Bernard Comrie

Max-Planck Institute, Leipzig

Tsez

Brighton

Prof. Martin Haspelmath

Max-Planck Institute, Leipzig

Lezgian

Essex

additional seminars

 

 

 

no guest (see below)

 

several lesser-used langs of Europe

Sussex

Prof. Geert Booij

Free University of Amsterdam

Dutch

Surrey

 

Each guest led a fruitful extended discussion on a pre‑circulated paper. In each case the most challenging points of the inflectional system of the particular language were presented by the guest and then analyzed together. This took the entire morning. The ninth seminar was given over to minority languages of Europe, with presentations on Catalan, Welsh, Icelandic, Basque, Bulgarian, Macedonian and various other Slavonic languages, all by regular members of the group.

 

Local participants

 

The afternoon of each seminar was given over to participants’ research, typically four papers, each consisting of a half-hour presentation with fifteen minutes discussion. Regular participants from each institution (including postgraduates writing theses on morphology) were invited to each seminar. Others were invited individually according to the particular seminar topic. Attendance varied only slightly: typically there were 15-18 present, with 5-6 postgraduates included.

 

Assessment

 

The series went well, and exceeded our expectations. We fully met the aims and objectives specified in the proposal. The guest speakers were stimulating and responsive (a full morning’s discussion has not been a problem). The format of the seminars worked very well. It provided a forum for established scholars to report on current work, including interim results on four ESRC-funded projects which were running at Sussex, Essex and Surrey. It also gave a friendly but well-informed audience in which postgraduates gave their first presentations.

 

While the guests were invited to share their expertise, there was a useful return effect, in that several commented favourably on the quality and volume of work being carried out in this area in Britain.

 

However, it is more convincing to point to the outputs (return to web page for these).

 

Conclusion

 

We thus believe we have fully met the four aims and objectives specified. We are grateful to the ESRC for the opportunity to do so.

 

 

Report written by:

 

            Professor Greville Corbett (Surrey) - organiser

 

on behalf of the site organisers:

 

Professor Gerald Gazdar (Sussex)

Professor Dick Hayward (SOAS)

Dr Andrew Spencer (Essex)

 

Return to Project List