Workshop: How much is too much? The one-new-idea constraint and related phenomena at the information-intonation interface

This workshop assembles researching the packaging of information relative to intonation units. Seminal studies including Chafe (1979, 1994), Givón (1983), and Pawley & Syder (1983) have suggested universal cognitive constraints on how much new information may be expressed in a prosodic chunk, e.g. Chafe’s “one new idea constraint”. Despite their wide-reaching implications, and their impact on fields including discourse analysis, psycholinguistics, and typology, these claims still largely await testing for more languages as well as discourse types.

Where and when? 

• The workshop will take place on Friday, July 12th, starting approx. at 9:30am and ending with a joint workshop dinner (location and time tba). The location is in HS 1034 in this building (Kollegiengebäude 1). 

• We invite you to already come early on the 11th (Thursday) so that you can participate in this year's Hermann Paul Lecture with Prof. Dr. Petra Schumacher (Cologne) on "The Future of Experimental Pragmatics".
• There will be an additional programme around the lecture, namely a guided tour of an exhibition on endangered languages by Freiburg-based linguists in the afternoon of the 11th (more information here) and a reception after the Hermann Paul Lecture. We will shortly share more detail regarding these events as well.
• If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to get in touch either with Naomi Peck (naomi.peck@linguistik.uni-freiburg.de) or Uta Reinöhl uta.reinoehl@linguistik.uni-freiburg.de).

• Call for papers

Programme