Parameters in the 21st Century
Anna Cardinaletti (Universita Ca Foscari, Italy)
Abstract: The Principles and Parameters approach was a postulated solution to Plato’s Problem, as defined and stipulated by Chomsky (1986) and Chomsky and Lasnik (1993) to explain the apparent gap between linguistic knowledge and linguistic competence ( the argument from poverty of the stimulus). The research following the Minimalist Program takes issue with the large number of independent postulations in P&P trying to  reduce them to more fundamental principles or to derive them from `reasonable’ interface constraints on derivations. The workshop wants to present more current modifications and alternatives of P&P, e.g. correlations between the parameters, applications of economy, conservatism, the macro- and micro-variations,  and dialect variations.

Empirical approaches to contrastive linguistics and translation studies
Volker Gast (Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, Germany), Vahram Atayan (Heidelberg University, Germany) & Torsten Leuschner (Ghent University, Belgium)
Abstract: Contrastive linguistics and translation studies have considerably cross-fertilized each other in recent years, not least because they use similar resources and methods. In particular, the investigation of translated texts figures prominently in both fields, even though the perspectives taken, and the epistemological objectives pursued, are different. Beyond observational (corpus-based) methods, there is moreover a growing body of experimental research in both fields, e.g. using eye-tracking. This workshop is intended to bring together scholars from contrastive linguistics and translation studies, with a focus on interfaces and synergies between the fields.

A Study in Nanosyntax
Michal Starke  (Tromsoe University, Norway)
Abstract: As syntactic research has gradually become more detailed and empirically fine-tuned, it has become more plausible that domains called ‚morphology‘ and ‚syntax‘ by traditional descriptivists are in fact a single computational engine, also involving much of what has been called formal semantics in the generative tradition. Keeping them modular is initially attractive but quickly devolves into redundancy as one goes beyond coarse labels such as ‚oblique case‘, ‚satellite framed languages‘ or ‚participle‘. This workshop invites papers exploring the interplay of fine-grained syntactic structures with morphology and formal semantics, via the *ABA generalisation, packaging of structurally disparate interpretable features into a single morpheme and other diagnostics bringing morphology, semantics and syntax together.

Nature of change
František Kratochvíl (Nanyang Technological University Singapore, Palacký University Olomouc)
Abstract: Languages possess grammatical means to encode the nature and progression of change described by predicates. This is referred to as affectedness (e.g. Hopper and Thompson 1980; Tenny 1997; Dowty 1991; Beavers 2011; Beavers et al. 2017) or event culmination (Demirdache and Martin 2015).
This workshop focuses on two questions: (i) what the grammatical means to encode the change (lexicon, morphology, syntax) and how is the change trajectory conceptualised, and (ii) what are the available vectors to track the change (patient, benefactive, self-benefactive, etc.), as in (Fried 2011, 2014; Kratochvíl and Delpada 2015, and others).  Submissions are invited on languages of Asia and Oceania, but relevant submissions comparing two or more languages, which include languages of Asia or Oceania, are also encouraged.

Olinco 2018 PROGRAM(as of June 6th). Olinco 2018 Book of Abstracts