Blog CRC1646
Conference Review: Project A03 organised Workshop on “Mismatches in Information Structure, Prosodoy, and Syntax: Challenges and Chances in the Data”
The workshop “Mismatches in Information Structure, Prosody, and Syntax: Challenges and Chances in the Data”, organized by the members of project A03 at Center for Cognitive Interaction Technology (CITEC) at Bielefeld University, focused on highlighting interesting and challenging mismatches in data based on information structure, syntax, prosody, and their interface. Ojaswee Bhalla (Indian Institute of Technology Delhi), Frank Kügler, Corinna Langer (both Goethe-Universität Frankfurt a. M.), Tatiana Luchkina (Stony Brook University), Katalin Mády, Balázs Surányi (both Research Institute for Linguistics Budapest) were among the several specialized researches in the field who were invited speakers for the workshop. The programme brought together a diverse set of languages, including Hindi/Urdu, Hungarian, German, Russian, and English.
The event departed from the usual workshop format. Instead of full-length talks, each contribution consisted of a concise 5–10 minute lightning presentation centered on a small set of data, followed by an extended 35–40 minute discussion. The two day workshop opened with Jutta Hartmann and Petra Wagner (both from A03), who provided an overview of the goals of project within the broader context of the CRC’s theme of linguistic creativity.
The first day concentrated on syntactic perspectives on information-structural phenomena, while the second day turned to prosodic and phonetic approaches. Shravani Patil (A03) presented an analysis of the Hindi/Urdu particle -hii based on a Bollywood film corpus, which was followed by Ojaswee Bhalla’s contribution on the discourse particle -to. These talks paved a way for interesting discussions not only based on information structure and syntax, but also on the notorious nature of discourse particles in Hindi/Urdu. Tatiana Luchkina presented on integrating prosodic and structural cues in Russian and Hindi/Urdu. The first day concluded with Balas Suranyi’s talk on marking broad focus.
The second day of the workshop focused on prosodic and phonetic aspects of information structure. Contributions by Katalin Mády, Ákos Buza, Farhat Jabeen, Corinna Langer, and Frank Kügler addressed variability in prosodic realization, experimental approaches to prosody–information structure mismatches, and their implications for theoretical analysis. The discussion highlighted the challenges of defining stable baselines and interpreting prosodic variation across speakers and structures.
The workshop facilitated closer methodological and theoretical exchange with invited speakers, especially on issues of experimental design and cross-linguistic comparison. At the same time, discussions of both cross-linguistic and within-language variation contributed to a clearer theoretical perspective and baseline for the project.
© Clara Schnell, SFB 1646
Project A03 © Sascha Hermannski, SFB 1646