Prepositions and Aspectuality

International Conference – June 3-4, 2011 at the Université de Provence
Aix-en-Provence
France

Call for Papers

This conference aims at exploring prepositions under a new light, that of their affinity with aspect.

The aptitude of prepositions to conform to the aspect of a process, be it a transitive telic interpretation (e.g. Jack wolfed down his sandwich in / *for five seconds flat) or to modulate the interpretation so that it be a telic perfective (e.g. Jack read his mail in twenty minutes) or an atelic imperfective one (e.g. Jack read his mail for twenty minutes), is obvious; the role prepositional relations are likely to play in the diathesis and in the transitive chain (The car was repaired by a specialist / Selhurst Park is currently under the control of separate administrators…); or the ability of prepositions to compete with verbal aspect (e.g. The car was under repair / The car was being repaired /// [Irish English] I’m just after taking a mid-term break / I’ve just taken a mid-term break); right down to the role they play in resultative structures (Cicero could talk a condemned man into chopping off his own head) as well as the dependency of the prepositional relation, are a number of clues all pointing to how apt the preposition is to be connected with the expression of or even to express aspect.

The topic can be approached in various ways, either by comparing prepositional usage from one language to another or, again, within one given language. You may choose to present one particular preposition, or a pair of prepositions or yet again a whole group of them.
Using as a starting point the definition of the preposition you can then set out to show its syntactic, semantic and utterance-based (or enunciative) characteristics.
Or you may choose to begin with a definition of aspect, and focus on the pertinence, the presence – or absence – of aspectuality in the prepositional relationship. But depending also on the definition of the preposition itself, which might take as definitional the preposition’s bivalency, or alternatively, while acknowledging the bivalent functioning of certain prepositions (Jill came tumbling after Jack) work with contrasts enabled by the fact that they can also be univalent (Jill came tumbling after).
The question can also be tackled by looking at the prepositional relation in terms of co-predication (or adjunction, as prepositional relations often function as predicative adjuncts or adverbial adjuncts), or the equally interesting problematic of the integration of the prepositional relation. Any and all links that can be made between prepositions and adverbial particles, prepositions and affixes, prepositions and postpositions, prepositions and case markers will also be welcome contributions to this conference.
Prepositional relationships and phonology or prosody can also be addressed. Or your study might centre on the opposition between the dynamism or absence of dynamism in the propositional relationship. Has the notion of transitivity any relevance when prepositional relations are concerned? To what extent is the prepositional relation altered or modified by the elements linked, or vice-versa? The preposition can also be studied in the way it has been apprehended in a diachronic perspective
Other questions may also be revisited, such as the already established links between aspect and characterisation, aspect and determination, or again aspect and commentary. Yet another dimension of this topic is the fact that the aspectual capturing operated by, and the orientation inherent in the prepositional relation conjointly imply dependency and viewpoint. All explorations will be conducted bearing in mind that like many other grammatical facts or features, prepositions too enable the representation of relationships seen through the filter of human experience.
Proposals are to be sent for November 15, 2010 to Jean-Marie Merle (LPL, CNRS, UMR 6057, jmmerle1@aliceadsl.fr) and Agnès Steuckardt (LPL, CNRS, UMR 6057, Agnes.Steuckardt@univ-provence.fr. A title is expected for November 15.
A half-page to one-page long presentation is expected by December 15 2010.
The scientific committee will notify you by January 5, 2011.
The conference will take place in Aix-en-Provence, France, June 3 and 4 2011.

http://sites.univ-provence.fr/wclaix/colloques_fichiers/prepositions_and_aspectuality.pdf

To read French version of call for papers:
http://sites.univ-provence.fr/wclaix/colloques_fichiers/prepositions_et_aspectualite2.pdf