To be held at the University of Iowa
May 24-26, 2002

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This workshop is intended to bring together scholars in different areas of specialization in linguistics to discuss the syntactic and semantic characterization of aspect from the perspective of generative syntax, discourse representation theory, and psycholinguistics. The workshop will be held over a two and a half-day period at the University of Iowa in the spring of 2002.

The study of aspect -- the internal temporal structure of events -- has a long history in the philosophical literature, but in the past two decades has also come to occupy an important place in the field of linguistics. The growing interest in aspect is due in part to recent developments in syntactic theory such as a more highly articulated clausal architecture and a more refined view of argument mapping, beyond a simple hierarchy of thematic roles, all of which has led to increased investigation on the syntactic representation of aspectual information and on the ways in which semantic interpretations are read off the syntactic structure to yield different event types. Concomitantly, researchers working within UG-based approaches to language acquisition, as well as more pedagogically based approaches, have carried out a number of studies on the acquisition of aspectual properties.

The goal of the workshop is to bring these various threads of research together and to stimulate communication across these sub-disciplines of linguistics. During the workshop participants will make formal presentations of their research related to issues including, but not limited to, the following:

• the type of aspectual information represented in the syntax and the nature of the functional categories involved
• the syntactic mechanisms involved in determining configurations crucial to the determination of aspectual classes
• the syntactic representation of sentential aspect (perfectivity / imperfectivity) and its interaction with lexical aspect (situation or event types)
• the degree to which shifting of aspectual types ("aspectual coercion") is determined by syntactic or postsyntactic (discourse-related) mechanisms
• the parameters and processes underlying first and second language acquisition of aspectual interpretation

The final versions of the formal presentations, to be submitted by early fall 2002, will be published in a book edited by the workshop organizers.

Invited Participants:

• Kathleen Bardovi-Harlig (Indiana University),
• Hagit Borer (University of Southern California),
• Hamida Demirdache (Universite de Nantes, France)
• Angeliek van Hout (Groningen University, the Netherlands),
• Nina Hyams (UCLA),
• Elizabeth Ritter (University of Calgary),
• Sara Rosen (University of Kansas),
• Cristina Schmitt (Michigan State University),
• Carlota Smith (University of Texas-Austin),
• Lisa Travis (McGill University, Montreal),
• Myriam Uribe-Etxebarria (University of the Basque Country, Spain) and
• Karen Zagona (University of Washington).

Selected Participants

• Patrick Caudal and Laurent Roussarie (CNRS and Université Paris 7)
• Raffaella Folli and Heidi Harley (University of Oxford and University of
  Arizona)
• Martyna Kozlowska-Macgregor (McGill University)
• Asya Pereltsvaig (University of Tromsoe)
• Mai Tungseth (University of Tromsoe)
   
• Papers and Abstracts

The workshop organizers are Professors Paula Kempchinsky, Spanish & Portuguese Department and Roumyana Slabakova, Linguistics Department, of the University of Iowa.

Everyone interested is invited to attend the workshop. Attendance is free.
However, to assist us in planning, we urge you to register.

Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all University of Iowa-sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires an accommodation in order to participate in this program, please contact Ms. Barbara Hermeier in the Department of Linguistics in advance at (319) 335-0209 or e-mail linguistics@uiowa.edu.