Theme: Description of pluricentric languages in the age of Digital Humanities

For the fourth edition of the VariaR International Colloquium - Variation in Romance Languages, we continue to favour collaboration between researchers from different universities and countries, both at institutional and scientific level. Our main focus is on studies of the different linguistic varieties of Romance languages, with the aim of theorising and describing their multicentric characteristics of use and standardisation, as well as their implications and impacts on teaching, education and open science, covering cultural heritage, especially in the digital age.
As in the previous edition, the theoretical focus is centred on Sociolinguistics (LABOV, 1994, 2001) and Construction Grammar (in line with the work of TRAUGOTT; TROUSDALE, 2013; GOLDBERG, 2016, 2019; HILPERT, 2014), considering language as a diasystem (WEINREICH, 1953; WEINREICH; LABOV; HERZOG, 1968; BYBEE, 2015; HÖDER, 2012). We also encourage the submission of contributions that explore the intersection between Construction Grammar and Sociolinguistics (MACHADO VIEIRA; WIEDEMER, 2019), as well as proposals on cross-cutting themes for understanding and mapping the plural sociolinguistic reality.

From a practical point of view, we focus on the interactions involved in building corpora and databases, especially in the era of digital humanities and the promotion of open and collaborative science. In this context, new technological perspectives are emerging for observing, creating, managing, analysing, describing, storing, preserving and sharing databases, along the lines proposed by MACHADO VIEIRA and MEIRELES (2023) as part of the VariaR project (https://variar.wixsite.com/variar).

Possible areas of contribution to an oral communication include:

- Grammatical studies that examine phenomena at the lexical, phonetic-phonological, prosodic, morphological, morphosyntactic, syntactic and textual levels, among others (interfaces), based on theoretical and methodological perspectives from the field of linguistics, including functionalist, cognitivist and sociolinguistic approaches of various kinds.

- Discussions on the relationship between the various theoretical and methodological approaches and the generalisations or grammatical specificities that can influence the teaching and learning of Romance languages.

- Linguistic projects and analyses aimed at creating a collection, database or repository accessible to the scientific community and the general public in order to promote knowledge and understanding of the grammar of Romance languages.

- Papers and linguistic analyses related to digital humanities, open science, strategic planning, model building and artificial intelligence tools for natural language processing, using the knowledge acquired in Romance language studies and promoting interdisciplinary collaboration.

In addition to the conference sessions, there will be paper and poster sessions. Oral communication proposals must contain between 300 and 500 words (not including bibliography)

A selection of papers will be published in a book (open access) or published in a themed issue of a scientific journal under the organisation of the VariaR Project's coordinating professors, Marcia dos Santos Machado Vieira and Vanessa Meireles.

Organising Committee:

VariaR Project Coordination:

Vanessa Meireles, ReSO (Recherches sur les Suds et les Orients, Paul-Valéry University - Montpellier 3 - UPVM)

Marcia dos Santos Machado Vieira, PPGLEV (Postgraduate Programme in Vernacular Languages, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro - UFRJ)

Support Team:

Eliete Figueira Batista da Silveira (Coordenação do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras Vernáculas, Faculdade de Letras, UFRJ)

Pâmela Fagundes Travassos (Rio de Janeiro Municipal Education Department, SME-RJ)

Patricia Vanessa de Ramos (proofreading in Spanish, Universität Augsburg - UNiA)

Pedro Poppolino (Computer Sciences, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro - UFRJ)

Rachel KOIN (MAster LEA NPI, Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3)

Sara ALBINO (Master LEA Traduction, proofreading in French, Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3)

Email: variar4@sciencesconf.org 

Websites: https://variar.wixsite.com/variar / Chaîne YouTube

IMPORTANT DATES AND INFORMATIONS:

Deadline for submission of proposals for papers and posters: 29th February 2024

Final programme: 15th March 2024

Registration of participants members (with payment of registration fees): before 30th March 2024

Registration of audience members (free): before 11th June 2024 (link : https://univ-montp3-fr.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYrdeqrrzktEtbw5L61V5cWgQH3_kg7I0UH#/registration)

Registration fee: 100 euros (the registration fee includes participation in conferences, coffee breaks and lunches). If you would like an invoice, please send us an order form. In this case, please do not use paybox.

Gala dinner: 40 euros

Languages of the conference: English, French, Portuguese

References

BYBEE, J. Language Change (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2015. 

GOLDBERG, A. Compositionality. In N. Riemer (ed.) Semantics Handbook. Route ledge. 2016.

GOLDBERG, A. Explain me this : creativity, competition, and the partial productivity of constructions. Princeton, New Jersey ; Oxford : Princeton University Press, 2019.

HÖDER, S. Multilingual constructions : a diasystematic approach to common structures. In : Multilingual individuals and multilingual societies. Benjamins : Kurt Braunmüller, Chistoph Gabriel, 2012, p. 241-257. 

HILPERT, M. Construction Grammar and its Application to English. Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press. 233 p, 2014. 

LABOV, W. Principles of Linguistic Change : Internal Factors. Oxford, Blackwell, 1994. 

LABOV, W. Principles of Linguistic Change : Social Factors. Oxford, Blackwell, 2001. 

MACHADO VIEIRA, M. S ; MEIRELES, V. « Variação em línguas românicas : ações do projeto VariaR como contributos de ciência aberta e cidadã », Reflexos [En ligne], 6 | 2023, mis en ligne le 19 avril 2023, consulté le 03 octobre 2023. URL : http ://interfas.univ-tlse2.fr/reflexos/1325. 

MACHADO VIEIRA, M. S; WIEDEMER, M. L.; "Variationist Sociolinguistics and Construction Grammar: The Challenges And The Prospects Of Compatibilization", p. 121 -128. In: Dimensões e Experiências em Sociolinguística. São Paulo: Blucher, 2019.https://openaccess.blucher.com.br/article-details/04-21761

TRAUGOTT, E. C. ; TROUSDALE, G. Constructionalization and Construction changes. Great Britain : Oxford University Press, 2013.  

TROUSDALE, G. ; MACHADO VIEIRA, M. S. ; CEZÁRIO, M. M. Variação e mudança linguísticas. Diadorim: revista de estudos linguísticos e literários, Rio de Janeiro, v. 21. n. 2. p. 19-29, 2019. https://revistas.ufrj.br/index.php/diadorim/article/view/31040 

WEINREICH, U. Languages in Contact. The Hague: Mouton, 1953.

WEINREICH, U. ; LABOV, W. ; HERZOG, M. Empirical Foundations for a Theory of Language Change. In : LEHMANN, W. P. et alii (eds.). Directions for Historical Linguistic. Austin/Texas, 1968. p. 95-195.