DiGS27
Diachronic Generative Syntax
University of Padova
on June 16-19, 2026
We are pleased to announce that the 27TH DIACHRONIC GENERATIVE SYNTAX conference (DiGS27) will be held at the University of Padova (Italy) from June 16-19, 2026.
Since its first edition in 1990, DiGS has established itself as the leading venue for the formal investigation of syntactic change in the generative framework. More information about the history (and near future) of this conference series can be found at http://walkden.space/digs/ .
DiGS will be hosted by the Department of linguistic and literary studies in Padova.
The main conference will feature a half-day workshop entitled ‘NEGATION UNDER THE LENS OF DIACHRONY’, which will take place on June 16th. The objectives of this workshop will be to investigate the diachronic evolution of clausal negative marker(s) in relation to the Jespersen cycle and its exceptions, to its connection with the phenomenon of negative concord, changes in the morphosyntax of negative indefinites and the connection to general properties of the languages investigated which might have triggered the change in the negative marker. The workshop’s keynote speaker will be prof. Chiara Gianollo, specialist in the syntax and semantics of negation in diachrony. For the workshop, we especially welcome proposals featuring a solid empirical basis on the evolution of negation in all its aspects, in particular concerning the factors that trigger, block, speed up or slow down the diachronic evolution of negative markers, negative indefinites and their positional, semantic and etymological properties.
Following the tradition initiated in Mannheim and Oxford, a roundtable discussion for linguists to meet and discuss the legacy of the Penn corpora is organized on the first day.
The invited speakers for the conference are:
- Chiara Gianollo (University of Bologna, Italy)
- Edith Aldridge (Academia Sinica, Taiwan)
- Hans Martin Gärtner (Academy of Science, Hungary)
E-mail: digs27unipd@gmail.com
Dates: 16-Jun-2026 – 19-Jun-2026
Location: Padova, Italy
Full Title: 27th Diachronic Generative Syntax
Short Title: DiGS27
Scientific committee
Linda Badan
Tommaso Balsemin
Davide Bertocci
Enrico Castro
Ivano Ciardelli
Jacopo Garzonio
Francesco Pinzin
Cecilia Poletto
Emanuela Sanfelici
Beatrice Santorini
Organising committee
Linda Badan
Tommaso Balsemin
Davide Bertocci
Enrico Castro
Francesca Dal Santo
Nicola D’Antuono
Jacopo Garzonio
Simone Giacometti
Federica Interlandi
Albina Kildeeva
Anna Mantovani
Jessica Rita Messina
Greta Mozzato
Elena Pettenon
Francesco Pinzin
Cecilia Poletto
Emanuela Sanfelici
Marco Simoni
Manfredi Maria Tuttoilmondo
Call for Papers
Linguistic Fields: Historical Linguistics; Linguistic Theories; Syntax
Call Deadline: 31 January 2026
Presentations should contribute to any aspect of diachronic generative syntax (e.g., syntactic change, or methodologies directly informing the field).
We invite abstract submissions for:
- Oral presentations (30 minutes + 10 minutes for questions)
- Workshop presentations (30 minutes + 10 minutes for questions)
- Poster Presentations
Language: The language of the conference is English, but submissions can focus on any language.
Format: Please indicate in your submission whether you want your presentation to be considered for an oral and/or poster session, and whether it is for the workshop or for the general session.
Length & style: Abstracts should be anonymous and no longer than two A4 pages, including references and examples, in 12-point Times New Roman, with margins of at least 2,5 cm / 1 inch.
Submission: Submissions for the conference are limited to a maximum of one individual and one joint abstract per author, independently from submissions for the workshop.
Where to submit: Submission platform: https://openreview.net/group?id=DiGS/2026/Conference
Important dates:
- The deadline for submission: January 31, 2026.
- Notification of acceptance: February 28, 2026.
Programme
Tuesday 16 June 2026
Workshop – Negation under the lens of diachrony
Aula 2 – Complesso Beato Pellegrino (via E. Vendramini 13)
12.30
Registration
13.50
Greetings
14.00
Keynote Speaker
Chiara Gianollo (University of Bologna, Italy)
15.00
Andrea Padovan & Alessandra Tomaselli (University of Verona)
Negative concord in the Cimbrian variety of Giazza/Ljetzan
15.40
Coffee Break
16.10
Lisa Gotthard (University of Edinburgh)
Negation, do-support, and structural reanalysis in the history of Scots
16.50
Round table on the legacy of the Penn corpora
Wednesday 17 June 2026
Main Session
Aula 2 – Complesso Beato Pellegrino (via E. Vendramini 13)
8.50
Greetings – Head of the Dipartimento di Studi Linguistici e Letterari (DiSLL)
9.00
Katalin É. Kiss (Hungarian Academy of Science)
The integration of interrogative clausal complements. Evidence from Old Hungarian
9.40
Waltraud Paul (Centre de Recherches Linguistiques sur l’Asie Orientale)
The irrelevance of Harmony and the Head parameter: Evidence from 3000 years of Chinese
10.20
Anni Wang (Ghent University)
A Valency Cycle in Historical Chinese: The Case of 敗 Bài
11.00
Coffee Break
11.30
Keynote Speaker
Edith Aldridge (Academia Sinica, Taiwan)
12.30
Lunch
14.00
Lian Wang (University of Pennsylvania)
The origin of do-support in English: a learning-based account
14.40
Michelle Troberg (University of Toronto)
Structural conditions for actuation: a novel use of the Tolerance Principle
15.20
Coffee break
15.50
Charles Yang (University of Pennsylvania) & Carola Tripps (University of Mannheim)
Historical Evidence and Language Acquisition: A Reexamination of English Modal Verbs
16.30
Carola Trips, Tara Struik & Lena Kaltenbach (University of Mannheim)
The psycholinguistics of historical bilinguals: A production-based study of code-switching and syntactic convergence in Early English and French contact
17.10
Enrico Higginbotham (University of Arizona)
Paradigm Opacity as a Trigger for Reanalysis: Switch Reference in Tohono O’odham
18.00
Departure for Palazzo Bo guided tour (only registered people)
Thursday 18 June 2026
Main Session
Aula 2 – Complesso Beato Pellegrino (via E. Vendramini 13)
9.00
Tomislav Sočanac (University of Venice)
Implicational complementation hierarchy in diachrony: The case of Bulgarian infinitive loss
9.40
Tàmas Halm (University of Vienna / Hungarian Research Centre for Linguistics)
When competing grammars fight it to a stalemate: the verbalization of the infinitive in Hungarian
10.20
Laura Grestenberger (University of Vienna)
Participial syntax and the diachrony of nonfinite adjuncts in Ancient Greek
11.00
Coffee Break
11.30
Poster Session 1
12.30
Lunch
14.00
Marc Meisezahl & George Walkden (University of Konstanz)
The -ing-spiracy: the role of priming in the rise of English -ing-complements
14.40
Burak Işık, Metin Bagriacik, Balkız Öztürk (Boğaziçi Üniversitesi)
Pseudo-incorporation of agents in nominalized clauses across the history of Turkish
15.10
Iris Tanza-Kamil (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Two causatives, four millennia – the Semitic causative templates from Old Akkadian to modern day
15.50
Coffee break
16.20
Antonina Mocniak (Jagiellonian University), Alberto Frasson, Dorota KlimekJankowska (University of Wrocław)
Lose a feature but keep your head: Tense in the Old Polish perfect
17.00
Yiming Liang & Alexandra Simonenko (Ghent University)
Verbal agreement syncretism and null subjects in Historical Icelandic
17.40
Business Meeting
18.40
Shuttle for social dinner
Friday 19 June 2026
Main Session
Aula 2 – Complesso Beato Pellegrino (via E. Vendramini 13)
9.00
Keynote Speaker
Hans Martin Gärtner (Academy of Science, Hungary)
10.00
George Walkden (University of Konstanz)
Hierarchical universals, probabilities and linearization change
10.40
Coffee Break
11.10
Poster Session 2
12.10
Monica Alexandrina Irimia (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia)
DOM emergence and scales fluctuation in Romanian
12.50
Lunch
14.20
Tara Struik (University of Mannheim)
Supported by French: a TSP perspective on the grammaticalization of the English (long) passive
15.00
Thomas Rainsford (University of Mannheim)
The emergence of suppletive allomorphy in the French prepositional system
15.40
Coffee break
16.10
Nele Arnold (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin & Leibniz-Centre General Linguistics/ZAS) & Andreas Blümel (University of Göttingen)
Insights from two Case Studies in the Diachrony of Germanic NPs – a Reanalysis
16.50
Sophia Voigtmann (University of Kassel) & Joanna Wall (University of Saarland)
The change in German nominal and pronominal double object order: A unified, processing strategy-related proposal
17.30
Concluding remarks
Poster Session 1
Nele Arnold (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin & Leibniz-Centre General Linguistics/ZAS).
Conjugation class mixing in the diachrony of German: A Distributed Morphology approach
Ben De Slagmulde (Ghent University).
Contact-induced word order change in Old Swedish and Middle Low German
Marc Olivier & Anna Paradis (University of Oxford).
Clitic placement across the syntax-prosody interface: Diachronic variation in Old Occitan and Old Catalan
Christine Meklenborg Nilsen, Piotr Garbacz, Sverre Stausland Johnsen (University of Oslo).
Embedded Verb Second in Old Gutnish
Stanisław Os (Ghent University).
Ge- as a preverb in Old English
Mariapaola Piccione (University of Stuttgart).
Verb–Particle Constructions in French and Italian: A Learnability-Based Account
Tommaso Sgrizzi (IUSS Pavia) & Paolo Lorusso (University of Udine).
Clause Size and the Emergence of Evidential volere in the History of Italian
Yosub Shin (National Tsing Hua University).
Two Types of Old Chinese Sentential Operators: Causal How and Disapproval/Denial How
Eleanor Walsh (Cornell University).
A generative approach to the problem of perfective ro- in Old Irish
Poster Session 2
Youssef T. Abotaleb (University of Padua).
From [Dem DP] to [DP Dem] between Classical and Egyptian Arabic: movement in diachrony
Maddalena Bonadio, Adam Ledgeway (University of Bergamo).
From All to Completely: the Emergence of Adverbial Agreement
Sonia Cyrino (University of Campinas).
On Portuguese ever-words in superlatives
Cristina Guardiano (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia / IUSS Pavia), Paola Crisma (University of Trieste) & Fae Hicks (University of Edinburgh).
Linearization and the diachrony of Latin noun phrases
Yasaman Sanei (University of Göttingen).
On changes to classifiers, plural marking, and the structure of NP in Persian
Silvia Terenghi (Utrecht University).
Agreeing adverbial troppo in Italo-Romance varieties: (De)grammaticalisation clines
Info for presenters
(main conference & workshop)
All communications will be in person.
Posters
- Your poster should be A0 in size (84,1 cm x 118,9 cm or equivalently 33” x 47”), vertical portrait orientation.
- We will be providing clips for you to fix your poster on the poster board.
- Unfortunately, we cannot provide printing services. If you need to print your poster locally, there are various (not internal) options close to the conference venue, e.g., https://www.copisterialacornucopia.it .
Oral presentations
- Your oral presentation should be 30 minutes, followed by a 10 minute discussion.
- If you are using slides, you can use either our or your own computer. In the latter case, we suggest you bring your adapter. If you are using a .ppt powerpoint, prepare a .pdf copy to have it ready just in case of any inconvenince.
- If you are using handouts, please prepare at least 40 copies.
- Unfortunately, we cannot provide printing services. If you need to print your handout locally, there are various (not internal) options close to the conference venue, e.g., https://www.copisterialacornucopia.it .
Social Dinner & Guided Tour
Social Dinner
The DiGS27 social dinner will take place on Thursday 18 June 2026, at a traditional agriturismo in the Venetan countryside, where participants will enjoy the flavours of Paduan gastronomic tradition.
The dinner will be held at Azienda Agricola La Primizia (https://www.
Shuttle service
Registration for the social dinner includes transport by dedicated shuttle service, departing from the conference venue at 6:30 pm and returning at approximately 10:30–11:00 pm.
Menu
The dinner will begin with an aperitif featuring a rich selection of traditional Paduan specialities, including mixed cured meats, sweet-and-sour vegetables, lightly battered seasonal vegetables, cheeses with honey and jams, burrata, fried free-range chicken strips, small pizzas, and homemade bread and focaccia. Main courses will include traditional bigoli pasta with white duck ragù and risotto with km-0 garden vegetables. The meal will conclude with a selection of traditional homemade desserts.
Local white and red wines will be served, together with the famous Venetan Spritz. Options for participants with specific dietary requirements will be available.
Important information
1. Participants with dietary requirements are kindly requested to indicate them in the registration form.
2. For organisational reasons, it will not be possible to register for the dinner after the deadline or to join at a later stage.
Cost
€50 (including shuttle service). Participants are kindly asked to bring the €50 fee in cash at registration.
Guided Tour
A guided tour of Palazzo Bo will take place on Wednesday, 17 June at 18:00.
Cost: €2
Please note: Only 30 places are available and will be assigned on a first-come, first-served basis. Participants are kindly asked to bring the €2 fee in cash at registration.
Palazzo Bo, the historic seat of the University of Padua, is located in the city centre of Padua (15 mins walking from the conference venue). The guided tour includes access to the courtyards and their artworks, as well as to the world first Anatomical Theatre (1594) and the Anatomical Kitchen. Participants will also visit the Galileo Galilei Great Hall and Chair (Aula Magna), the Hall of Forty (Sala dei Quaranta), the Hall of Medicine, and the Hall of Law (see the leaflet available here: https://www.unipd.it/en/bo )
Registration & Payment
Standard fee:
a. Early bird: 30 March – 30 April; €180
b. Late registration: 1 May – 2 June; €220
Students (early career researchers, i.e. PhD, Post-docs):
30 March – 2 June; €100
€50 (including shuttle service).
Participants are kindly asked to bring the €50 fee in cash at registration.
Location & Practical Info
Conference Venue
The conference will take place in:
room 2, Complesso Beato Pellegrino, Via E. Vendramini 13 – Padova
Accommodation
Suggested accommodation near the venue of the conference
Casa al Carmine
Via E. Vendramini, 1 – Padova (PD)
https://www.casaalcarmine.it
Patavium
Via Beato Pellegrino, 106 – Padova (PD)
https://www.hotelpatavium.it
Europa
Largo Europa, 9/10 – Padova (PD)
https://hoteleuropapadua.com-hotel.com
Verdi
Via Dondi dall’Orologio, 7 – Padova (PD)
https://www.albergoverdipadova.it
How to get to Padova
For information on how to get to Padova, please follow the link below.
https://www.unipd.it/en/coming-padua
