International conference on
Revisiting
Japanese Modality
Department of Japan and Korea
School of Oriental and African Studies
University of London
24 – 25 June 2006
Supported by
the Japan Foundation
the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation and
the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation
Programme
Registration
Theme
Speakers
Location
Contact
Accommodation
Conference Poster (pdf)
Modality is an umbrella term that refers to various linguistic devices whose common characteristic is to enable speakers to express personal stances. It covers diverse domains, from epistemic modality (judgment modality, evidentials) to tense, and deontic modality (directives, volitives) to politeness. Although Modality has historically attracted a great deal of attention within linguistics, it has been studied in a somewhat fragmented way in Japanese linguistics. The same could be said for the field of Japanese language pedagogy: the teaching of modal aspects has not necessarily taken place in an awareness of the global features of Modality in the Japanese language. It could be said that the very scope of the study of modality in Japanese is not yet clearly defined and – with a few notable exceptions – it has not been considered within a unified framework. We believe that the time is ripe for revisiting the concept of modality on the basis of past research as well as recent linguistic approaches.
The purpose of this international conference is to revisit the notion of modality and to explore how this universal conceptual category is realized in the specific linguistic devices available to the Japanese language. The conference aims to overcome a history of ‘separatism’ and to bring together studies of linguistic phenomena which have so far been discussed at conferences of distinct subject areas in linguistics (e.g., semantics, syntax, pragmatics, or sociolinguistics), as well as language pedagogy. In order to achieve this aim, the call for papers explicitly invites authors to contextualize their work, and to make an effort to explore and illustrate the contribution of their specific approach to the general disciplinary discussion on Modality.
Prof. Takashi Masuoka, Kobe City University of Foreign Studies (Abstract)
Prof. Yukinori Takubo, Kyoto University (Abstract)
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Location
The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) is located next to Russell Square in Bloomsbury, in the heart of London. The British Museum, the British Library and our sister college University College London are in walking distance. SOAS can be reached easily from anywhere in the world by using one of London’s several international airports. For instance, from London Heathrow, a 50 minutes’ tube (i.e. underground) ride on the Piccadilly line will take you directly to Russell Square tube station, 5 minutes from SOAS.
SOAS Transport for London Google UK Map
Contact for further information and questions relating to the content of the conference:
Mika Kizu or Barbara Pizziconi
Department of Japan and Korea
SOAS, Thornhaugh Street
London WC1H 0XG, England
Tel.: +44 – (0)20 –7637 2388
Fax: +44 – (0)20 –7898 4399
e-mail:
mk89@soas.ac.uk (Mika Kizu)
bp3@soas.ac.uk (Barbara Pizziconi)
Contact for further information and questions relating to organizational and administrative matters:
Ms Sara Hamza
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Conference participants are kindly asked to make their own arrangement for accommodation. There are a number of hotels and B&B’s in the area.
Please distribute among interested friends and colleagues.
All welcome!