Many many thanks to everyone who contributed to making the symposium
such an enjoyable weekend!
The speaker's page has links to many of the handouts.
The original blurb:
Complex verb constructions are found in many of the world's languages.
We now have the beginnings of a typology of such constructions, ranging
from the different types of serial verbs (in, for example, the isolating
languages of East and Southeast Asia and the languages of Oceania and
West Africa) to the light verbs of the languages of Asia, as well as
the bipartite verbal systems of Australia and converbal complex predication
in Japanese, Korean, and Turkic. Work has been progressing on studies
of complex verbs from several different perspectives but so far there
has been little attempt to draw together those working on different
languages and in [different] frameworks. With work in this area now
beginning to flourish, it would be a good opportunity to take stock
of the various phenomena which come under the label of "complex
verbs".
The problems of complex predicates cross-cut subfields of linguistics.
Complex predicates pose challenges for theories of word formation -
how do they differ from lexcial compounds, for example? - and syntax
as well as lexical semantics (since multiple lexical items appear to
be doing the work of a single predicate). The interaction between predicate
formation and argument structure is an important area of research in
both functional and formal approaches to language description and both
sides would benefit from the progress made by the other in this area.
Furthermore, the cross-linguistic comparative work to date on complex
predicates has been very limited, and we now have the resources to make
progress in the typological comparison and historical reconstruction
of the various constructions coming under this label.
The purpose of the workshop is to bring together those working on different
types of complex predicates in different languages in order to discuss
problematic issues, possible typologies, pathways of grammaticalization,
and the merits of different approaches and analyses.