Language contact in pragmatics

Organization: Peter Auer (ISF), Yael Maschler (University of Haifa, ESF)

For this workshop the FRIAS School of Language & Literature will bring together an international group of linguists. They all do research on the same discourse marker: nu(n). The adverb and discourse marker nu(n) (Grmc. nu, Sanskr. nu/nû, nûnam, Old Greek νύ, νυ̃ν, lat. nun+c, Old Slav. nyně) presents a challenge for contrastive research and is, at the same time, a perfect example for the interaction of language contact (borrowing) and autochthonous language change. Reflexes of the above-mentioned etymons exist in all modern Germanic (incl. Yiddish) and almost all Slavic languages, but the particle has by no means the same meaning in each of these languages. In addition, it has been borrowed into genetically unrelated contact languages such as Hebrew (from Russian and/or Yiddish), Finnish and Estonian (from Germanic languages?), and Kazakh (from Russian). The workshop profits from this unique situation and wants to contribute to our understanding of language contact, contrastive analysis and synchronic as well as diachronic research on discourse markers.

Thursday, Nov. 3

9:00-9:15 Welcome, General Questions
9:15-10:15 Russian - Galina Bolden: The discourse marker nu in Russian conversation
10:15-10:45 Coffee
10:45-11:45 Polish - Lea Sawicki: No - the Polish discourse marker - and beyond
11:45-12:45 Yiddish - Dalit Assouline: The discourse marker nu in Israeli ultra-orthodox Yiddish
15:00-16:00 Hebrew - Yael Maschler and Gonen Dori-Hacohen: Hebrew nu on Israeli political phone-in radio: A sequential and affective discourse marker
16:00-17:00 German- Andrea Golato: nu(n) in Standard German: Objections and overcoming objections
17:00-17:30 Coffee
17:30-18:30 Saxonian - Peter Auer and Anja Stukenbrock: The pragmatics of nu as a discourse marker (and modal particle) in the East Middle German dialects

Friday, Nov. 4

9:00-10:00 Icelandic - Helga Hilmisdóttir: Nú and núna in Icelandic conversation
10:00-10:30 Coffee
10:30-11:30 Danish - Trine Heinemann: Same-same, but different? Changing the conditions of intersubjectivity versus intersubjective changes in conditions. The Danish nu/nå.
11:30-12:30 Swedish - Anna Lindström: Nå in Swedish conversation: Examples from the novice at the stove.
14:30-16:30 Finnish - 1) Auli Hakulinen: The word ny(t) as an adverb and a particle in Finnish 2) Marja-Leena Sorjonen and Heidi Vepsäläinen: The Finnish no(h): an omnipresent particle?
16:30-17:00 Coffee
17:00-18:00 Finland Swedish - Hanna Lehti-Eklund and Mirja Saari: A descriptive analysis of nu in textual and pragmatic uses: a historical perspective
18:00-19:00 Estonian - Leelo Keevallik: Complying after resistance: Turn-initial no in Estonian

Saturday, Nov. 5

9:00-10:00 Dutch - Harrie Mazeland: Dutch nou and its most prominent environments of use in talk in interaction
10:00-11:00 Kazakh - Raihan Muhamedowa: Nu in Kazakh-Russian language contact
11:00-11:30 Coffee
11:30-12:30 Romani / Yiddish - Yaron Matras and Gertrud Reershemius: Nu in central-Eastern Europe: Function, typology and contact in Yiddish, Romani, and other languages
12:30-13:00 Final Discussion