Upcoming events
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Tue09Dec202511:00 amBlandijn, FaculteitszaalShow content
Abstract
“Continuum con addensamenti”, ‘continuum with agglomerations’: this is how Berruto once described the Italian linguistic repertoire. Much has been discussed about the extremes of this continuum; however, little do we know about those intermediate “agglomerations”. How many are there? How are they organized? Do they share features? To address these questions, we adopt a phonetic perspective and borrow a technique typically used in commercial profiling. Examining established Neapolitan phonetic features alongside new prosodic parameters, we identify possible speaker profiles and features agglomerations, shedding a new light on the intermediate varieties of the Italian standard-dialect continuum. In this talk, I will discuss preliminary studies and findings, applying this innovative methodology to offer new insights into the nature of the concept of variety.
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Fri12Dec202510:00 amBlandijn 2 3.30 (Camelot)Show content
To what extent can we use a high-resolution comparative linguistics approach to open a window into human history when we lack tangible historical information? The Guaporé-Mamoré region, overlapping significant territory in the Bolivian and Brazilian lowlands, is one of the most linguistically and culturally diverse regions in the continent. In spite of that, we know extremely little about the history of a vast majority of the languages, and the indigenous nations who speak them, before the 20th century. In this talk I will discuss my ongoing research examining grammatical properties in order to triangulate historical information about the nations inhabiting of this area.
Jointly organised with BantUGent. To join the meeting online via MS teams, please contact Nina van der Vlugt.
Past events
Event Information:
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Thu05Dec20191:00 pmCamelot Room (Blandijnberg 2, 3rd floor)
Michal Starke: Cutting French verbs and gluing them back together
Show contentProf. Dr Michal Starke (Masaryk University): "Cutting French verbs and gluing them back together".
Abstract: Descriptively, French has many "irregular" verbs, as well as a mildly complex combination of suffixes on verbs. I aim to show that both irregular verbs and the combination of verbal suffixes follow a regular underlying system, and that this system can be elegantly derived by using phrasal spellout, the elsewhere principle and the functional sequence provided by syntax.