Word Order, Headedness and Linearization (WOHL2026)
The Department of Linguistics at the University of Vienna is pleased to announce The Vienna Conference on Word Order, Headedness and Linearization (WOHL2026), to be held on July 1-3, 2026. This conference brings together linguists working on linearization, headedness and word order from various perspectives: theoretical, experimental, psychological, typological and diachronic. The conference includes a main session (July 1 and 2) and a one-day workshop (July 3) dedicated to truncated clauses: deficient clauses which, by their very minimality, have the potential to offer new empirical evidence bearing on linearization, headedness and word order.
Important dates
Abstract submission deadline: January 31, 2026
Notification of acceptance: March 15, 2026
Conference dates: July 1-3, 2026
Organizers
Tamás Halm (University of Vienna)
Kriszta Eszter Szendrői (University of Vienna)
Invited speakers
Theresa Biberauer (University of Cambridge) (confirmed)
Guglielmo Cinque (Università Ca' Foscari) (confirmed) Caterina Donati (CNRS / Université Paris Cité) (confirmed) Ad Neeleman (University College London) (confirmed)
Call for Papers: Main Session
Understanding the mapping of hierarchical structure to linear sensory output is one of the central challenges of linguistics. How and where does linearization happen? Is there a universal underlying linearization algorithm? If so, what is the locus of the variation attested in surface word order patterns across the languages of the world: underlying (base-generated) structure, syntactic (or post-syntactic) movement or the lexicon?
The twin notions of cross-linguistic universality and language-internal harmony have guided much research into headedness. Is head-final or head-inital the more basic word order, and if so, in what sense? Should headedness be grasped as a language specific (or language and phrase-specific) parameter? What does the C in FOFC stand for: condition or constraint?
Beyond theoretical syntax, headedness and word order is also a lively topic in diachronic linguistics and psycholinguistics: is there a historic drift from OV to VO word order, and if so, what are the underlying forces driving it? Are head-initial structures easier to process and/or acquire?
Word order phenomena are also a central concern of typology. While much progress have been made in understanding and explaining correlations such as Universal 20, there remain typological generalizations (such as the strong correlation between word order and ergativity) which remain to a large extent unexplained.
The goal of this conference is to bring together linguists working on linearization, headedness and word order from various perspectives: theoretical, experimental, psychological, typological and diachronic. The two-day conference will be accompanied by a one-day workshop on truncated clauses: deficient clauses which, by their very minimality, have the potential to offer new empirical evidence bearing on linearization, headedness and word order.
We invite abstracts for 30-minute talks that address the question of linearization, headedness and word order from a theoretical, experimental, cognitive, typological or diachronic perspective.
Submission guidelines
Abstracts should be anonymous.
Abstracts should not exceed two pages (including examples, figures, and references), using 1in/2.5cm margins and Times New Roman 11 pt font.
One person may submit up to two abstracts: one as a single author or co-author, and another one as a co-author.
Please indicate whether you wish your abstract to be considered for the main session or the workshop on truncated clauses (or both).
Please include the following information in the body of your email:
your name;
the title of your paper;
your affiliation(s);
your email address
your academic seniority (e.g. PhD student, postgrad, tenured faculty): a limited number of travel and accommodation stipends will be offered to presenters in reverse order of seniority
Important dates
Abstract submission deadline: January 31, 2026
Notification of acceptance: March 15, 2026
Conference dates: July 1-3, 2026
Call for Papers: Workshop on Truncated Clauses
Truncated clauses have long been one of the most exciting empirical realms of syntactic research due to their reduced structural complexity compared to their non-truncated counterparts. This is because in generative syntax, the derivation of a clause typically involves taking a set of building blocks (words, morphemes), the assembly of some starting structure and then a series of overt or covert movements to arrive at the final structure and finally, the step of linearization, whereby a two-dimensional tree-structure is converted into a linear string. Of these, only the end product is directly observable, and it is the task of the syntactician to reverse engineer what has been going on. Typically, the same utterance (linear sequence of strings) can be derived by various alternative competing sets of movements and base structures. The more structure there is, the larger the hypothesis space for various models.
Truncated clauses have less structure and less place for syntactic movement: this means that the hypothesis space for various competing models is significantly reduced. Thus, the study of truncated clauses offers the tantalizing prospect of finding more straightforward empirical evidence bearing on fundamental theoretical questions (such as linearization, case assignment or the size of nominal arguments) to which a definitive answer may have so far been elusive.
The study of truncated clauses is a vibrant field with a rich tradition, including research into embedded truncated clauses such as adverbial complement clauses (Haegeman 2010 a.o.) or bare verb phrase complements in restructuring (Wurmbrand & Shimamura 2017 a.o.); and into non-embedded (root) truncated clauses such as the Inflektiv in German (Bücking & Rau 2013 a.o.). More recent advances include work on reduced participial clauses in Romance (Cecchetto & Donati 2022) and on radically truncated clauses in Hungarian (Halm 2021).
The study of truncation has also been closely intertwined with the study of similar (but arguably distinct) phenomena such as fragments (clauses derived via the elision of some material from a full sentence, Merchant 2005 a.o.), the reduced written register (which involves fully fledged sentences with optional subject and/or object drop, Haegeman 1987 a.o.), clause chaining (Weisser 2015 a.o.), and root (or optional) infinitives in child language (Rizzi 1993, Wexler 1998 a.o.)
We invite abstracts for 30-minute talks exploring truncated clauses or one of the related phenomena described above. Preference will be given to talks which combine theoretical insight with strong empirical support. Contributions related to the main theme of the conference (linearization, headedness and word order) are especially welcome.
Submission guidelines
Abstracts should be anonymous.
Abstracts should not exceed two pages (including examples, figures, and references), using 1in/2.5cm margins and Times New Roman 11 pt font.
One person may submit up to two abstracts: one as a single author or co-author, and another one as a co-author.
Please indicate whether you wish your abstract to be considered for the main session or the workshop on truncated clauses (or both).
Please include the following information in the body of your email:
your name;
the title of your paper;
your affiliation(s);
your email address
your academic seniority (e.g. PhD student, postgrad, tenured faculty): a limited number of travel and accommodation stipends will be offered to presenters in reverse order of seniority
Important dates
Abstract submission deadline: January 31, 2026
Notification of acceptance: March 15, 2026
Conference dates: July 1-3, 2026
Programme
to be announced
Important dates
Abstract submission deadline: January 31, 2026
Notification of acceptance: March 15, 2026
Conference dates: July 1-3, 2026
Registration
Registration will open after the notifications for acceptance have been sent out (March 31st).