Panel Sessions

Day 1
06 May 2019
Day 2
07 May 2019
Day 3
08 May 2019

Aux limites du discours

Panelists: Jean-Jacques Courtine & Monica Zoppi

Places: 650

Les délires, aux limites du discours.
Paris, capitale de la folie, à la fin du XIXème siècle

Paris, dernier quart du XIXème siècle…. Avec l’urbanisation accélérée de la capitale, l’augmentation massive de sa population, des anxiétés nouvelles se font jour. L’alcoolisme fait rage, les dégénérescences guettent. « N’y-a-t-il pas plus de fous aujourd’hui qu’autrefois ? », s’inquiète ainsi le Dr Paul Garnier dans sa Folie à Paris (1890). Il occupe une position stratégique pour répondre à la question : Garnier est le médecin-chef de l’Infirmerie Spéciale du dépôt de la Préfecture de Police, où sont transportés tous les insensés qu’on embarque sur les pavés de la capitale. Et la réponse est affirmative : l’entassement dans la cité de masses compactes et flottantes d’individus anonymes ferait éclore de nouvelles folies urbaines, jusqu’alors inconnues. La ville produirait donc de la folie, dont la psychiatrie observe, transcrit, identifie, et classe les discours.

On pourrait en rester là, et n’y voir rien d’autre qu’un épisode classique de la longue histoire du contrôle des aliénés. Mais il y a une autre manière de lire ce tableau des misères urbaines dont les rapports psychiatriques consignent scrupuleusement les discours ; et d’y entendre les voix de ces égarés lorsqu’elles percent la surface du discours psychiatrique. Aux limites de celui-ci, dans ses creux et ses marges, une autre ville alors se dévoile. Car si la ville engendre de la folie, la folie produit de la ville : une image singulière de la capitale se dégage de ces délires. Elle possède sa géographie, sa monumentalité, ses hauts-lieux comme ses bas-fonds, ses zones d’ombre ; mais aussi ses parcours, ses lignes de fuite, ses errances, ses divagations… N’est-il pas enfin temps, pour ceux qu’analyser des discours préoccupe, d’explorer le continent noir de la folie, et de restituer leur sens historique aux paroles qui nous en parviennent ?

Jean-Jacques Courtine
Leverhulme Trust Visiting Professor, Queen Mary, University of London
Emeritus Professor, University of California (Santa Barbara) & Sorbonne Nouvelle (Paris III)
Honorary Professor, University of Auckland (New Zealand)

 

Transformações da fala pública:
do porta-voz autorizado aos tuítes do filho amado

Nessa palestra desenvolvemos uma reflexão sobre as inflexões da fala pública hoje, focando nossa descrição no funcionamento das formas históricas de enunciação e na formulação e circulação de enunciados no campo da prática política na sociedade brasileria atual. O exercício de falar em público é, conforme Courtine e Piovezani (2015), um fato social e um objeto privilegiado da materialização e do desenvolvimento das relações sociais e das lutas pelo poder. Assim, os instrumentos e os rituais que estão envolvidos na produção da fala pública possuem singularidade histórica e se modificam conforme as condições de produção da enunciação.
Na nossa reflexaõ damos destaque ao funcionamento discursivo das novas tecnologias de linguagem, em particular às redes sociais, consideradas como dispositivos digitais de formulação e circulação da fala pública. Analisamos seus efeitos sobre a enunciação política na conjuntura atual, considerando os impactos de uma prática de deslocalização tendencial do sujeito enunciador (Pêcheux, 2016 [1981]) que eles propiciam. Propomos que há um desregularização dos rituais enunciativos que configuram a fala pública, por efeito do desdobramento e sobreposição das instâncias autorizadas e não autorizadas que colocam em circulação os enunciados políticos. Nesse sentido, consideramos o funcionamento discursivo da pós-verdade e das fake-news como solidários ao processo de deslocalização tendencial do sujeito enunciador, ao produzir conjuntamente o desregramento sistemático dos regimes de verda-de e de legitimação dos sentidos.

Mónica Graciela Zoppi Fontana (UNICAMP-CNPQ)

Yes, no, maybe and not so much, in the grammar of the language

Panelists: Maria Helena Moura Neves, Carlos Faraco, Marcos Bagno

Places: 100

This speech treats the grammar of language in use in two territories, both of them laid on the conception that ‘grammar’ lessons cannot be well solved in terms of explanation if the description of the analyst offers categorial labels which are invariably unifunctional. In the first sample, without denying the systemic regulation of language, we propose that language use reveals, however, that the specific category is only defined on the combinatory game of categorial features which occur in different points of the utterance. In the second sample – more discoursively oriented – of this proposal of a linguistic analysis which is not commited to the fixity of limits, the territory of ‘polarity’ is unveiled: it is, in principle, a binary yes / no game, however the discoursive operation of transiting between the poles composes an interspace of meaning production which results in the assembly, for example, of nos which do not nod, of comparative structures which relativize comparisons, and of modalizations which bring the speaker to the stage of relativizations (never compromising the language system).

L2 Speech Development: Challenges and Propositions

Panelists: Xinchun Wang & Ubiratã Alves

Places: 650

L2 Speech Learning: Perception, Production, and Training
Xinchun Wang

Adult second language (L2) learners often have difficulties with the perception and production of the target language speech sounds. Despite these difficulties, research has shown that non-native speakers’ L2 speech perception and production improve significantly with increased L2 experience and learners’ ability to learn non-native speech sounds remain intact throughout the life span (Flege, 2007). Previous training studies also provided evidence that laboratory based phonetic training is effective for both perception and production of the speech sounds (Bradlow et al, 1997). After a brief introduction to the current L2 speech learning theories, this talk will focus on the current practices of computer-based perceptual and production training for L2 speech learning. In a series of studies in the past two decades, (Wang, 2008, 2012, 2013, Wang & Munro, 2004), I have used different methods to train adult L2 speakers to learn English vowel and Mandarin Chinese tone contrasts. Two training paradigms will be discussed and compared for learning effectiveness: Fading Techniques and High Variability Phonetic Training (HVPT). Findings suggest the Fading Techniques using synthesized vowels along with the HVPT using multiple speakers’ stimuli were effective for perceptual learning of English vowel contrasts and learning retained 3 months later. The HVPT paradigm alone used in L2 tone training was comparable to perception and production training with both audio and visual input for learning Mandarin tones. The audio and visual training used in a subsequent Mandarin tone training resulted in learners’ significant improvement in production of Mandarin tones at sentence level.

L2 Speech Learning: Contributions to Formal and Applied Linguistics
Ubiratã Kickhöfel Alves (UFRGS, CNPq, Brazil)

In the last twenty years, the field of L2 phonetic-phonological acquisition has shown a considerable growth in the Brazilian research scenario. This growth can be felt not only in the larger number of studies published in the field, but also in the diversity of research topics and theoretical models these studies have been built upon. Departing from this scenario, in this talk we aim to (i) characterize the studies on L2 phonetic-phonological acquisition carried out in Brazil; (ii) Discuss how this interdisciplinary field not only receives contributions from, but also provides input to the fields of phonetics and phonology, psycholinguistics and L2 teaching. In order to do so, we will start by presenting an overview of the main Brazilian studies on L2 speech in the last twenty years, in order to provide an overview of the main research interests, challenges and future directions to be faced. We will then concentrate on the studies carried out by our research team at Labico (Laboratório de Bilinguismo e Cognição) at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. We will present an overall view of the results of our studies on (i) the discussion on L2 perceptual models and their relation to production (Alves, Silva, 2016; Perozzo, Alves, 2016; Perozzo, 2017); (ii) L1 attrition (Kupske, 2016; Kupske, Alves, 2016; Schereschewsky, Alves, Kupske, 2017, Pereyron, 2017; De Los Santos, 2017; Schereschewsky, Alves, Kupske, in press; Alves, Schereschewsky, Luchini, in press); (iii) the role of explicit instruction, phonetic training and the building of L2 pronunciation teaching materials (Alves, Luchini, 2017; Alves, Luchini, in press; Alves, Brisolara, Perozzo, 2017). By focusing on these three research interests, we aim to reinforce the contributions of research on L2 speech perception and production to other areas of Linguistics, as well as motivate novice researchers to start carrying out research in our field.

The role of Contexto in Linguistics in the last 32 years

Panelists: Ataliba de Castilho, Jaime Pinsky e Jair Barbosa da Silva

Places: 100

In order for Brazilian linguistics research to be understood and valued, we would need a publisher run by an academic. This “dream of consumption” came true in 1987, when Prof. Jaime Pinsky, retired holder of Ancient and Medieval History of the State University of Campinas, founded Editora Contexto. From that year on, Editora Contexto published some of the best works in the area of Linguistics written by Brazilian researchers.

Formal approaches to sign language syntax: the impact of modality

Panelists: Roland Pfau & Ronice Quadros

Places: 650

After more than 50 years of research on sign languages from all around the world, there can be no doubt anymore that sign languages are natural languages, fully on a par with spoken languages on all levels of linguistic description. Given that formal approaches to language structure usually (implicitly or explicitly) adhere to the tenet of universality, it is thus a worthwhile endeavor to investigate in how far such approaches can also be applied to structures observed in visual-gestural languages, i.e., in how far the suggested formalisms are independent of the mode of signal transmission. Indeed, to date numerous efforts have been made to demonstrate that formal approaches couched within Generative Grammar (Government & Binding, Minimalism, Distributed Morphology, Optimality Theory) can explain sign language structures, i.e. derive the attested patterns and exclude the unattested ones. It is safe to say that these efforts have been successful. Still, we need to ask whether the peculiarities of manual articulation – think, for instance, of the availability of two articulators (the two hands) and the grammatical use of space – do not at the same time confront us with phenomena that are difficult to capture in models that have been developed based on spoken languages.

In this panel, we will first provide a brief overview of the interplay between formal syntactic approaches and sign language linguistics, i.e. the impact of formal models on the study of sign language structures, and vice versa. We then present two lines of research dealing with this interplay. Ronice will present a study on bimodal code-blending, i.e. the simultaneous mixing of sign and spoken language in utterances produced by hearing native signers. Obviously, the simultaneous combination of lexical elements and syntactic structures is not an option in spoken languages, and thus existing models are not designed to capture this phenomenon. Ronice will demonstrate how a formal model can account for the sometimes rather complex blending patterns. Roland will address the syntactic phenomenon Negative Concord (NC) in his contribution. Across sign languages, negation can be expressed by manual elements (particles) and non-manual markers (e.g. headshake) which combine in language-specific ways. Roland will argue that a formal model which assumes that negative elements carry uninterpretable or interpretable features (which have to be checked) can account for different types of NC observed in sign languages, i.e. NC involving manual and/or non-manual elements.

14:00 – 14:15 Roland Pfau & Ronice M. de Quadros: Introduction: Modality and theory
14:15 – 14:50 Ronice M. de Quadros: Blending language modalities
14:50 – 15:25 Roland Pfau: Negative Concord in sign languages
15:25 – 16:00 Discussion

Paths of change: the portuguese lexicon

Panelists: Graça Rio-Torto & Mário Viaro

Places: 100

The tension between stability and change, between conservatism and innovation that defines the languages, is also reflected in the lexicon, in its architecture, in its lexical constructs, in the morphological and lexical resources and wordformation patterns of each idiom. Like other sectors of the language, the lexicon organization and dynamics is grounded on change. The successive periods of structural reorganization of the lexicon of Portuguese follow the changes of the remaing fields of the language, so that it will be focused the interfacing with phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics, in close conjunction with the discursive/textual conditions of use and the sociocognitive and interidiomatic contacts factors that shape the functioning of languages. In this panel we attempt to describe and analyze some of the trends more/less prototypical of the changes, the emergence of specific lexical domains, their motivations, their repercussions within the lexicon, in the periodization of the language, in its grammaticalization, ressemantization, textual typologies, among many other aspects. The heterogeneous nature of the lexicon and the multiplicity of causes of dynamic change in its interior justify the diversity of theoretical foundations and of empirical basis of the study, which can include Brazilian Portuguese, vernacular or not, European Portuguese, contemporary or not, in any of its dyatopic, dyastratic and/or dyaphasic varieties.

Linguistics and Resistance

Panelists: Anna Christina Bentes, Eleonora Albano, Marcus Maia & Rodrigo Fonseca

Places: 100

After the recent contingency of 42% for 2019, in the resources of investments in the Ministry of Science and Technology and of 21% in the Ministry of Education, the situation of Brazil in terms of academic research is quite serious. What is the role of Linguistics in this scenario? We have brought together researchers from different fields of Linguistics to discuss about how the area resists and collaborates in resistance in gloomy political times like the one we are facing right now.