ALS 04/1, February 2004
The ALS Treasurer, Doug Absalom, would like to apologize to those members who tried to contact him during January. His office has been 'under refurbishment' since Christmas, and so naturally he has been without an entirely functional computer, and often received garbage rather than emails from the various other locations he's been connected to. He's back in his office again, with a working computer, and has been attempting to salvage what he can from January. If you sent him an email during January, and haven't heard back in a reasonable space of time, try resending the message. Once again, apologies.
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New Scientist recently published an interview with Sasha Aikhenvald (RCLT, La Trobe) talking about endangered languages. The article is available on the web at http://www.newscientist.com/opinion/opinterview.jsp;jsessionid=JJNAMLEDJMDI?id=ns24321.
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Hilary Chappell has just returned from a one-year position at the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) in Paris as Associate Professor (Directeur de Recherche) where she completed a book on Hakka Chinese with Prof. Christine Lamarre, and presented a seminar series to graduate students at the University of Paris VII on the typology of Sinitic languages.
She will be in charge of the Linguistics Programme until the new professor arrives, expected in June, 2004, taking over from David Bradley.
The Programme welcomes the return of Tania Strahan, Ian Langford and Jo Taylor as part-time lecturers in Linguistics this year. We are also pleased to announce that the Dean of the Arts and Social Sciences Faculty at La Trobe, Professor Roger Wales, will be providing an Honours seminar in Psycholinguistics.
Barry Blake has taken up his new post as Emeritus Professor of Linguistics, and can now devote his time to his various Victorian languages projects.
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The Research Centre for Linguistic Typology, La Trobe University, has put out its 2004 Newsletter, giving information on events, staff and visitors of the RCLT in 2004, as well as reviewing the previous year's work. It is available on the web at http://www.latrobe.edu.au/rclt/Newsletters/2004.pdf.
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Barbara Jones, "A grammar of Wangkajunga: A language of the Great Sandy Desert of north western Australia", PhD thesis, University of Sydney.
Wangkajunga is an Australian language spoken by approximately 160 people now living in the southern Kimberley region of north Western Australia. The Wangkajunga people live in a number of communities in the town of Fitzroy Crossing and the adjacent Fitzroy River valley. They began to migrate to this region sometime in the early 1970s from their homelands in the Great Sandy Desert.
Wangkajunga is a Pama-nyungan language classified as belonging to the Wati sub-group of the Western Desert group of languages. The Western Desert is a vast area of land and the differentiation between languages in the area and their geographical location has been the focus of a number of linguistic and anthropological studies. Although several studies have been made of the southern languages of the Western Desert this is the first detailed grammar of a language of the northern group. Wangkajunga is notable for its rich case marking and very complex system of cross-referencing bound pronouns.
By comparisons with other languages of the Western Desert the study highlights some of the features that group the northern Western Desert languages and distinguish them from those in the south. It also draws some comparisons with the northern neighbours of the Western Desert belonging to the Marrngu and Ngumpin groups.
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Post-doctoral Fellowship in Documentation and Description of Endangered Languages
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Endangered Languages Academic Programme, Department of Linguistics
Vacancy number 0407
Salary: £20,250-£29,250 (inclusive of LW)
Applications are invited for a two-year Postdoctoral fellowship in the documentation and description of endangered languages. The position will be held at SOAS and will commence in August 2004. Applicants with a research specialisation in Asian or African languages will be preferred.
The main purpose of the fellowship is to contribute to the research and teaching in the Endangered Languages Academic Programme (ELAP), which is one component of the Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project along with the Endangered Languages Documentation Programme (ELDP) and the Endangered Languages Archive. ELAP is located within the Department of Linguistics and the Fellow will be a member of the department whose staff members are strongly committed to extending the frontiers of theoretical and field linguistics research.
The successful candidate will be expected to contribute to the research profile of ELAP and of the Department of Linguistics, to contribute up to 3hrs teaching per week and to present papers at departmental seminars and conferences. There may also be opportunities to be involved in workshops and intensive training courses.
Benefits include 30 days annual leave plus statutory and bank holidays and membership of USS pension scheme.
For informal enquiries about the fellowship, please contact Prof. Peter Austin, Director of ELAP, SOAS, Russell Square, London, WC1H 0XG, UK. E-mail: zp2-at-soas.ac.uk.
An application form and job description may be obtained from the Human Resources Department, School of Oriental and African Studies, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG (Tel: 020 7898 4134; Fax: 020 7898 4129. e-mail address: humanresources-at-soas.ac.uk). Application forms should be accompanied with: a curriculum vitae (to include a list of publications); an abstract/summary of the applicant’s doctoral thesis; and a clear statement of the candidate’s academic plans for two postdoctoral years.
Closing date for applications: Friday 5th March 2004
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Research Student Fellowship for PhD in Field Linguistics, 2004-5
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Endangered Languages Academic Programme
The Fellowships will consist of remittance of fees at the UK/EU level and a bursary of £9832 per year, renewable for up to a further two years.
Further information is available from: Zara Pybus, Endangered Languages Academic Programme, Room 363, School of Oriental and African Studies, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London, WC1H 0XG, Tel (0) 207 898 4578, e-mail zp2-at-soas.ac.uk.
The closing date for applications is 3 May 2004.
Research Student Fellowships may be awarded to candidates who are proposing to register full-time for a research degree at SOAS in September 2004.
Applicants must have applied for a place to study at SOAS by 31 March 2004 in order to be considered for a Studentship.
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Computer Programmer
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Endangered Languages Academic Programme, Department of Linguistics
Vacancy number 0409
Salary: £21,125+LW-£33,679+LW
Applications are invited for a two-year position as computer programmer attached to the Endangered Languages Archive (ELAR), which is one component of the Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project, along with the Endangered Languages Academic Programme (ELAP) and the Endangered Languages Documentation Programme (ELDP). The position will be held at SOAS and will commence in April 2004.
The main purpose of this position is to assist ELAR in providing services to depositors and users of the archive, especially software development (web, text processing, multimedia), video and audio processing, archiving, and training. The position will be supervised by the ELAR Archivist and will require an ability to work together with a range of people, from commercial computing specialists and graphic designers to linguists and members of (endangered languages) communities.
The appointee should have demonstrated skills and experience in developing software for text and other linguistic purposes (including XML document design and processing), website development (including developing interactive pages using CGI applications and databases), database design, development and training, and data management and security. Experience with media-editing and/or multimedia authoring will be an advantage, as will good writing and communication skills and teaching or training experience.
Annual leave is 30 days per year plus statutory and bank holidays. USS pension scheme will be available.
For informal enquiries about this position, please contact Professor Peter Austin, Director of ELAP, SOAS, Russell Square, London, WC1H 0XG, UK. E-mail: zp2-at-soas.ac.uk
An application form and job description may be obtained from the Human Resources Department, SOAS, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG (Tel: 020 7898 4134; Fax: 020 7898 4129. e-mail: humanresources-at-soas.ac.uk).
Closing date for applications: Friday 5th March 2004.
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Lectureship in Language Documentation
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Endangered Languages Academic Programme, Department of Linguistics
Vacancy number 0408
Salary: £24,250-£35,750 (inclusive of LW)
The Endangered Languages Academic Programme (ELAP) is a new initiative established at SOAS funded by the Lisbet Rausing Charitable Fund, to support the study and documentation of endangered languages.
ELAP is one component of the Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project along with the Endangered languages Documentation Programme (ELDP) and the Endangered Languages Archive. ELAP is located within the Department of Linguistics, an active research community strongly committed to extending the frontiers of theoretical and field linguistics research within the School’s mission to be a centre of excellence in research and teaching related to Asia and Africa.
We are now seeking to appoint a lecturer in language documentation for a period of four years to commence 1st August 2004, to undertake research and teaching in theoretical and applied aspects of language documentation with a focus on endangered languages. Area of language specialisation is open, but expertise in Asian or African languages would be preferred.
The appointee should have demonstrated skills in research and teaching in linguistic analysis, language documentation, fieldmethods, and digital archiving and publication. A record of experience and skills in teaching and supervision at postgraduate levels, plus proven administrative and organisational ability is essential.
The successful candidate will be expected to contribute to the research profile of ELAP and of the Linguistics Department, to teaching and supervision in postgraduate courses and to be involved in workshops and intensive courses (eg. summer schools). There may also be opportunities to contribute to undergraduate teaching.
Annual leave is 30 days per year plus statutory and bank holidays. USS pension scheme will be available.
For informal enquiries about the lectureship, please contact Professor Peter Austin, Director of ELAP, SOAS, Russell Square, London, WC1H 0XG, UK. E-mail: zp2-at-soas.ac.uk
An application form and job description may be obtained from the Human Resources Department, SOAS, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG (Tel: 020 7898 4134; Fax: 020 7898 4129. e-mail: humanresources-at-soas.ac.uk).
Closing date for applications: Friday 5th March 2004
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RCLT Postdoctoral Research Fellowship 2004
Applications are invited for a three-year Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in the Research Centre for Linguistic Typology, La Trobe University, Melbourne. This is to commence on 1st July 2004 (or soon thereafter).
Applicants should have been awarded their doctorates within the last five years. The University may consider cases in which the period is in excess of five years due to special circumstances. Applications will be considered from candidates whose thesis is currently under examination. Applicants must hold a doctoral degree or have equivalent qualifications at the date of appointment. La Trobe graduates should normally have a minimum of two years postdoctoral research experience at another institution. A Fellowship will not normally be awarded to an applicant who holds a permanent appointment within the University.
The Fellowship will be a three-year appointment and is intended to advance the research activities of the University by bringing to or retaining in Australia a promising scholar.
Enquiries should be directed initially to the Associate Director of RCLT, Professor Alexandra Aikhenvald (email a.aikhenvald-at-latrobe.edu.au, phone +61 3 9479 6402).
Further information and the application form may be obtained from the RCLT World Wide Web Address http://www.latrobe.edu.au/rclt.
The original application and five copies must be received by the Secretary of the RCLT Research Committee, no later than 16th April 2004 (extended deadline). Incomplete or late applications will not be considered.
Salary Range: A$48,400 pa. - A$51,954 pa.
Closing Date: 16th April 2004
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Second call for papers
The Australian Linguistic Society Annual Conference will be held in Sancta Sophia College at the University of Sydney, July 13-15, 2004, hosted by the Department of Linguistics. The plenary speakers include Carol Neidle (Boston University) on signed languages, and Cliff Goddard (University of New England) on semantics. There will also be a workshop on historical linguistics, 'Conflicting Traditions? Approaching Historical Linguistics from Different Perspectives' with Sheldon (Shelly) Harrison (University of Western Australia) as keynote speaker.
The conference website is http://conferences.arts.usyd.edu.au/index.php?cf=4.
Submissions should be in the form of abstracts only. Abstracts can be up to 500 words in length and should include a title.
Abstract due date: 1 March 2004
ALS 2004 welcomes work on any area of general linguistics, whether descriptive, typological, theoretical, sociolinguistic. Previous conferences have usually had a good selection of papers on languages of Australia and the Pacific, and in a range of theoretical frameworks including NSM.
The main conference sessions will involve 30-minute talks (20 min. + 10 min. discussion). Presentations should describe original, unpublished work. As well, there will be workshops, including one on different approaches to historical linguistics. Papers for workshops will be arranged by the workshop convenors. For the historical linguistics workshop, contact Bethwyn Evans (bethwyn-at-coombs.anu.edu.au), or Luisa Miceli (luisa.miceli-at-anu.edu.au).
You can submit your abstract by e-mail (als2004-at-arts.usyd.edu.au), or by regular mail to:
ALS2004 c/- Walsh, Simpson, Mushin
Linguistics F12
University of Sydney NSW 2006
AUSTRALIA
Fax: 61+2-9351-7572
Abstracts may also be submitted on the conference webpage http://conferences.arts.usyd.edu.au/submit.php?cf=4. You should receive an e-mail confirming receipt. We'd like you to submit on the webpage, because it will save us time in uploading. However, since this is the first time we have used this software, if you submit by web-page, we'd also like you to e-mail us just to say that you've sent an abstract (als2004-at-arts.usyd.edu.au).
If you don't submit by webpage, please provide the following information:
To present a paper, you need to be a member of the Australian Linguistic Society (http://www.latrobe.edu.au/rclt/als/). Membership comes with a subscription to the Australian Journal of Linguistics. You can join the society at the time of the annual conference, or you can join earlier by contacting the Treasurer, Associate Professor Doug Absalom Faculty of Education & Arts, University of Newcastle, NSW 2300; ph. 61-2 49216437; Doug.Absalom-at-newcastle.edu.au.
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Conflicting Traditions? Approaching Historical Linguistics from Different Perspectives
Workshop at ALS, 13-15 July 2004, University of Sydney, run by the Centre for Research on Language Change
Website
http://crlc.anu.edu.au/events/workshop.html.
Keynote speaker
Sheldon P. Harrison, University of Western Australia
Summary of workshop theme
Within the discipline of historical linguistics we find a number of independent traditions, each of these with its own methods and models of interpretation, sometimes focusing on rather different aspects of language histories. This workshop aims to address whether the various approaches are complementary, or whether there is potential conflict in the use of methods and models such as:
Request for papers
We invite papers that present a case study of a particular method or model at work, pointing out how this has been insightful, or that discuss complementary and/or conflicting aspects of various approaches.
Anyone interested in contributing to this workshop should e-mail an abstract (200 words approx.) to the coordinators, Bethwyn Evans (bethwyn-at-coombs.anu.edu.au) and Luisa Miceli (luisa.miceli-at-anu.edu.au), by 1 March, 2004.
Following the workshop, participants will be invited to submit written contributions for publication in a volume of papers, to be published by the Centre for Research on Language Change (ANU), edited by the workshop coordinators.
Plans for workshop
We plan for the workshop to take place during at least one day of the ALS conference at the University of Sydney, 13-15 July, 2004. Papers will be of 30 minutes duration, followed by ten minutes of questions and discussion.
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The 2004 International Lexical Functional Grammar Conference will be held on 10-12 July 2004 in Christchurch, New Zealand, preceded by a week-long Winter School on LFG and computational linguistics.
The conference web site is: http://www-lfg.stanford.edu/lfg/lfg2004/.
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'Indefinites and weak quantifiers', Thematic conference, The Linguistic Society of Belgium and The Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium of Arts and Sciences, Brussels, 6-8 January 2005.
Topics of the conference:
The aim of the conference is to make a contribution to the study of plural indefinites. This involves, on the one hand, the specific properties of plural indefinites which distinguish them from singular indefinites; on the other hand, the expression of indefiniteness by means of weak quantifiers, also known as indefinite, intersective, symmetric, existential or cardinal quantifiers (e.g. two, some, several, many, etc.).
The recent literature on plural indefinites and weak quantifiers contains a number of hypotheses which deserve closer investigation. These include the following – among others:
The conference is open to the syntactic, semantic and pragmatic approaches. Perspectives that account for cross-linguistic variation are strongly encouraged.
Abstract submission and deadline
Abstracts should be at most 1 page (format Word or RTF, Times 11, spacing 1,5) and may include an additional page for references. They should be sent by e-mail in an attachment file to each of the following three addresses:
vogeleer-at-skynet.be
liliane.tasmowski-at-ua.ac.be
guido.vandenwyngaerd-at-kubrussel.ac.be
or by snail mail to: Svetlana Vogeleer, Institut Libre Marie Haps, Rue d'Arlon 11, B-1050 Bruxelles, Belgium
The abstract file should be anonymous. The author's name(s), affiliation, contact address, email adress and the title of the paper should be included in the body of your message. Abstracts will be reviewed anonymously by the Scientific Committee.
Talks can be given in English or French.
The deadline for abstracts submission is April 30th, 2004. Authors will be notified before July 1st 2004.
Contact address for any additional information: Svetlana Vogeleer, vogeleer-at-skynet.be
Venue
The conference will take place in Brussels. Thursday 6th January 2005: Institut Libre Marie Haps, rue d'Arlon 11, 1050 Brussels. Friday 7th January 2005: Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie, Hertogsstraat 1 (rue Ducale 1), 1000 Brussels. Saturday 8th January 2005: Institut Libre Marie Haps, rue d'Arlon 11, 1050 Brussels.
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Call for papers - International Language and Cognition Conference (ILCC 2004), Coffs Harbour, 10-12 September 2004
Conference website: http://www.ilcc.une.edu.au.
This interdisciplinary conference aims at bringing together researchers working on the interface of language and cognition. We invite submissions from the fields of linguistics, philosophy, psychology, palaeoanthropology, neuroscience, artificial intelligence and related areas.
Although submissions (including poster submissions) in a broad range of issues in Language & Cognition research are welcomed, we are particularly interested in the three themes that are indicated in the following, along with some prominent questions linked to them. Each of these three issues is subject to extensive intra- and interdisciplinary discussions. In this vein, we hope to stimulate exchange between the disciplines.
We invite submissions, particularly on the conference themes, for 25-minute presentations and for a poster session. Anyone may submit at most one contribution as a single author and another one as a co-author. Submissions must be anonymous.
Please submit an abstract and a summary of your paper or poster. The abstract should not exceed 200 words. The summary should not comprise more than 2 pages (including references, diagrams, and examples) with 2,5cm margins on all four sides, and it should be written in 12pt font (only pdf, ps, rtf, and txt files are accepted).
Please submit electronically at http://www.ilcc.une.edu.au/submissions.php.
Deadline - 1 May 2004
01 May - Deadline for Submissions (Papers and Posters)
01 June - Notification of Acceptance
15 June - Program Announcement
01 July - Early Bird Registration Deadline
01 August - Regular Registration Deadline
10-12 September - Conference
The conference is organised by the Language and Cognition Research Cluster (cf. http://www.une.edu.au/arts/LangCog/) of the University of New England, Australia.
For further details, contact: Andrea Schalley, School of Languages, Cultures & Linguistics, University of New England, Armidale NSW 2351, Australia, ilcc-at-une.edu.au.| Back to Conferences | Back to Contents |
| President | Michael Walsh (Sydney) | mjw-at-mail.usyd.edu.au |
| Vice-Presidents | Verna Rieschild (Macquarie) | vrieschi-at-ling.mq.edu.au |
| Rachel Nordlinger (Melbourne) | R.Nordlinger-at-linguistics.unimelb.edu.au | |
| Ingrid Piller | ingrid.piller-at-linguistics.usyd.edu.au | |
| Secretary | John Henderson (UWA) | jkh-at-cyllene.uwa.edu.au |
| Treasurer | Doug Absalom (Newcastle) | doug.absalom-at-newcastle.edu.au |
| Journal Editors | Toni Borowsky (Sydney) | Toni.Borowsky-at-linguistics.usyd.edu.au |
| Mark Harvey (Newcastle) | mharvey-at-mail.newcastle.edu.au | |
| (Reviews) Alan Libert (Newcastle) | lnarl-at-alinga.newcastle.edu.au | |
| Newsletter Editor | Tim Curnow (UQ) | tjcurnow-at-ozemail.com.au |
| Postgrad Student Rep | Nick Thieberger (Melbourne) | n.thieberger-at-pgrad.unimelb.edu.au |
The ALS Newsletter is published four times per year. This is the first issue for 2004. The next issue (04/2) will come out in mid May 2004. Copy will be due on the first Monday in May. If you would like to be on the email list for a reminder that the date is approaching, contact the Newsletter Editor.
Please send copy, and any queries, comments or suggestions to Tim Curnow (tjcurnow-at-ozemail.com.au).
The ALS publishes a journal, the Australian Journal of Linguistics (AJL) twice a year. The latest issue was 23/1. The journal is published by Carfax (Taylor & Francis), http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/carfax/07268602.html.
Correspondence regarding papers and reviews should be sent to any of the editors or the reviews editor (contact details in office bearers section).
In general, subscriptions are due at the beginning of each calendar year, unless you pay for several years at a time. The year you are paid to is shown on the address label on the envelope your journal comes in.
A form is available on the website to renew your subscription.
This may be a good time to remind you that apart from email addresses, there is only one membership list and that is maintained by the Treasurer, Doug Absalom (doug.absalom-at-newcastle.edu.au). If you need to change your address or make other enquiries, please do it through him.