"Inventive Linguistics"

Call for papers: « Inventive Linguistics »

Interdisciplinary international conference: literature / linguistics / history of ideas

EA 741 (Etudes des pays anglophones)

Université Paul Valéry - Montpellier III

13-14 March 2009

Can we speak of 'linguistic invention' as we speak of scientific

invention? Having inherited the language we use, there seems to

be such a thing as constraints to inventiveness. Taking up

Lévi-Strauss's dichotomy, is not the linguistic inventor more a

'bricoleur' of language than an 'engineer'?

If we can talk (not uncontroversially) of scientific 'progress', the

evolution of language has often been perceived as following a

path towards deterioration. Hence the numerous linguistic projects

which aimed at checking the 'corruption' of language or at making

it as rational and univocal as possible, as the only way to make

sure human thoughts would be clear (the philosophical and universal languages from the17th to the 19^th century for instance)
or logical (from Leibniz to the formal languages of the 20^th

century). In its attempt to make language more consensual, the
'politically correct' phenomenon of the 20^th century could be said

to be in line with this attempt at reinventing language. Inventive

linguistics thus seems to be linked to some form of political or

social utopia. But has language the power to change things? Is the

alteration of/on language always positive? Where is the frontier

between reform and manipulation? Yet language seems to follow

an unpredictable and uncontrollable path of its own. The
international English language of the 21^st century for example

seems to move further and further away from its original standard

model in the use non-native English speakers make of it around

the world: degraded copy or re-invention?

However linguistic resourcefulness seems to be the prerogative of

literature. According to Deleuze, the literary work of art is always

written in some foreign, other language which makes 'scientific'

grammar stutter, thereby ensuring the constant regeneration of

language. Literature sometimes makes its creations more visible:

we only need to think of More's Utopia which launched the genre

of verbal creation, of Joyce's linguistic bomb, Tolkien's invented
languages, or more generally of the 'linguistic-fiction' of the 20^th
and 21^st centuries. The question then needs to be raised as to the

limits of inventiveness: how far can it go without forgetting that

language is above all supposed to be shared? What are the goals

and effects/affects of linguistic creation? What are its privileged

rhetorical arms?

We seem to have driven a wedge between 'inventive' and

'scientific' linguistics. Should they really be thought in terms of

opposition?

The following key words are mere suggestions and by no means

limitations to the chosen theme:

- lexical coinage

- invented languages (universal characters, lingua humana, glossolalia, etc...)

- political correctness – linguistic norms – 'non-standard' English

- fantastic linguistics, 'linguistic-fiction' (imaginary travel / exploratory stories / science-fiction)

- constraints as inventiveness

- language / ideology / utopia / dystopia

Proposals of about 300 words to be sent by June 30, 2008 to

sandrine.sorlin@univ-montp3.fr

For further information, contact sandrine.sorlin@univ-montp3.fr or christine.reynier@univ-montp3.fr

Selected papers will be considered for publication.