Verbs and coverbs: a cross-linguistic re-analysis of part-of-speech categories

A research project funded by the Australian Research Council 2005-2007 (DP0556350)

Chief Investigators: Mengistu Amberber (UNSW), Brett Baker (UNE), Mark Harvey (UNewcastle)

Workshop on the theme Complex Predication and the Coverb Construction Friday 7th July 2006

As part of the LINQ06 Festival of Linguistics in Brisbane, Australia, during July 2006 we will be hosting a one-day workshop on the theme of complex predicates. Talks are by invitation.

Participants:

Mengistu Amberber (University of New South Wales)
Brett Baker (University of New England)
Bill Foley (University of Sydney)
Mark Harvey (University of Newcastle)
Mary Laughren (University of Queensland)
Bill McGregor (University of Aarhus)
Rachel Nordlinger (University of Melbourne)
Keren Rice (University of Toronto)
Andrew Spencer (University of Essex)
Peter Svenonius (University of Tromsø)

Workshop program

Click on the names to display speakers' abstracts for the workshop (all are html pages except Svenonius', which is in pdf format).

9.15-10.30 Plenary: Andrew Spencer
Lexical Relatedness in a Paradigm-Based Model of Morphology in Abel Smith Lecture theatre (23-1)

10.30-11.00 Morning tea in the cloisters

11.00-11.30	Baker & Harvey
11.30-12.00	Foley
12.00-12.30	McGregor

12.30-1.30 Lunch

1.30-2.00	Rice
2.00-2.30	Nordlinger
2.30-3.00	Laughren
3.00-3.30	Amberber

3.30-4.00 Afternoon tea in the cloisters

4.00-4.30	Spencer
4.30-5.00	Svenonius
5.00-5.30	Discussion
5.30-6.00	Discussion

In addition, as a special session within the annual Australian Linguistics Society conference, there are three additional papers on this theme from 2-3.30 on Saturday by Ian Green & Nick Reid (UNE), Ruth Singer (UMelb), and Nerida Jarkey (USyd) (see the ALS website for details closer to the event).

Position paper for the workshop: Complex predicate formation. Brett Baker and Mark Harvey. MS, in pdf format. Uses SIL and Arboreal (non-unicode) fonts.

The coverbs project

Summary of the project from the ARC application:

This ground-breaking project challenges the adequacy of the category 'verb', which has been central to theories of language since Aristotle. Categories like 'verb' and 'noun' are based chiefly on data from European languages. Using new data from Australian and African languages, we will show that significant revisions are required to the classification of words into parts-of-speech. This project will significantly enhance Australia's reputation for major new developments in linguistic theory, based on detailed linguistic fieldwork. It will centrally involve detailed documentation of three endangered Australian languages.

Downloadable papers

'Complex predication and the coverb construction'. Mengistu Amberber, Brett Baker, Mark Harvey. Draft of a paper to appear in a Festschrift for Terry Crowley, ed. by Diana Eades, John Lynch and Jeff Siegel. In pdf format.

Complex predicate formation. (Position paper for the complex predicates workshop.). Brett Baker and Mark Harvey. MS, in pdf format. Uses SIL and Arboreal (non-unicode) fonts.