GLOW Syntax Workshop in Florence, 20th April 2026
“Less documented languages in formal linguistics: empirical problems and theoretical perspectives“
Less documented languages is an umbrella term meant to cover a vast variety of languages that are more difficult for scholars to access for a variety of reasons. Some of them concern the lack of written attestations or of an official status in education or administration, the small size of the speech community, the limited transmission from one generation to another – conditions that generally go together with minority or endangered status. However, it is possible to consider under the same heading languages that, while not endangered or minority languages, are simply less documented in terms of available data or scholarly research. All languages and language families that respond to this basic description can form the object of submission.
The focus of the workshop will be on the important contributions of less documented languages to empirical knowledge and to the development of the theory. We invite 40 minute contributions (30 minutes + 10 minutes discussion) on any topic related to the morphology and syntax of less documented languages, including the following:
- New evidence from less documented languages raising issues in morphosyntactic theory or bearing on existing ones
- Theoretical proposals motivated by evidence (previously known or unknown) from less documented languages
- Formal approaches to macro- or microvariation
- Formal issues involving bilingualism (balanced or imbalanced), including language contact, so-called heritage languages, creolization.
- Quantitative (corpus-based), experimental, computational treatments of formal issues
Abstract selection will privilege proposals with a clear formal focus.
As befits the spirit of the GLOW Conference, the proposed theme connects to the research conducted at the University of Florence in the last three decades, by the workshop organizer, Rita Manzini with Leonardo Savoia and others – combining a uniquely rich documentation of morphosyntactic phenomena in Romance varieties and Albanian varieties of Italy with a descriptive and explanatory grille explicitly based on generative grammar. While the host institution is noted for the documentation of microvariation in Romance and Balkan languages, our invited guest, Julie Legate, is of course noted for her investigation of non-Indo-European languages, from Walpiri to Acehnese (Austronesian), stressing the independence of the workshop from particular language or language family.
For further information, please contact: glow-workshop@smallcodes.com