NEWSLETTER
August 2007
Welcome to the latest Newsletter of the Australian Linguistic Society. As usual, the @ symbol in people's email addresses has been replaced with -at-, and clicking on any link will open that site in a new window.
To make my life easier, I've switched from what was essentially hand-coding the Newsletter to using FrontPage. With any luck, this will mean basically nothing from the point of view of you, the reader. But it's always possible that this will lead to some major problem in the case of some people, since FrontPage is produced by a certain large company which has a habit of default settings which suit their own products but don't necessarily work on other people's products. I've attempted to override any defaults which I'm aware of which will cause people problems, but I may not have managed to get them all. So if you find that there's a bit of the Newsletter where something goes disastrously bizarre on your machine, please let me know so that I can do something to avoid the problem in the future.
Thanks to all those who contributed to this issue. Enjoy the Newsletter!
Tim Curnow
tjcurnow-at-ozemail.com.au
The ALS 2007 Conference organization is proceeding. Abstracts have been submitted, reviewed and accepted. A preliminary program is now available on the website, together with a list of abstracts, some information on accommodation, the registration form, etc, etc.
Please note that in order to save on trees, we will not be distributing printed abstracts at the Conference, although a few copies will be available for consultation. So if you think you'll be desperate for a copy, you'd better print one off before you come!
The ALS 2007 website is at http://als2007.als.asn.au.
Look forward to seeing you in Adelaide in September!
Tim Curnow
We propose to establish a society for the study of the history of linguistics in the Pacific region, with the above title, abbreviated SHLP. The purpose of this society is to foster and advance the study of the history of linguistic research in the world’s most linguistically diverse region, the Pacific (embracing the region falling within the scope of Pacific Linguistics). SHLP is concerned with the history of all aspects of linguistics — documentary, descriptive, theoretical, and applications — and its relation to other disciplines. The aims of the society include:
The main activities of the society will be:
Membership of the society is open to those interested in Pacific region history, especially linguists, historians, archaeologists, anthropologists, educators, and speakers of languages of the region. Please send expressions of interest to the planning committee (see below) at organisers_shlp-at-yahoo.com.au.
The planning committee aims to establish an interim organisation by the end of 2007, and will communicate information directly to all those who have expressed interest.
Thanking you in advance, the Planning Committee:
Hilary Carey (Newcastle,
Hilary.Carey-at-newcastle.edu.au)
William B. McGregor (Aarhus, linwmg-at-hum.au.dk)
David Moore (Alice Springs, moored03-at-bigpond.com.au)
Bill McGregor
I am seeking your assistance to obtain more nominations for the Research Quality Framework (RQF) Assessment Panels.
The Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) is seeking nominations from individuals to become members of its 2008 RQF Assessment Panels. The RQF was established to ensure that public money is invested in high quality research that delivers real benefits to the higher education and research sectors, and the wider community. Further information on RQF is available on RQF Web Page located at http://www.dest.gov.au/research/rqf/.
DEST is particularly seeking more nominations for membership for the End User and International roles.
For Assessment Panel members, DEST will pay for business class airfares, accommodation and incidentals, sitting fees for face to face meetings ie., $572 a day (excludes GST) and for out of session work. Membership will involve participating in assessing research within your area of expertise and attending a 10 day meeting in September 2008. If possible, members would also attend a training day in October/November 2007 and another day in June 2008.
If individuals are willing to be nominated, please ask them to send a copy of their curriculum vitae to Ms Liz Visher, Director of Assessment, Secretariat Team, Research Quality Framework Taskforce, Research Quality Branch, Department of Education, Science and Training, GPO BOX 9880, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia. They should submit the electronic version of the curriculum vitae to rqf.nominations-at-dest.gov.au. This will enable DEST to prepare the nomination form on their behalf.
The nomination form or curriculum vitae should be submitted by 5.00pm AEST on Wednesday, 22 August 2007.
The nomination form, information kit, biographies of panel chairs, and other relevant information about the RQF are available at http://www.dest.gov.au/research/rqf/.
If you need any assistance or have any questions please do not hesitate to contact Liz Visher on phone (61 2) 6229 4243 or send an email to rqf.nominations-at-dest.gov.au.
Liz Visher
One of the linguistics program's (now former) PhD students, Kerry Mullan has won a La Trobe University Research Thesis Merit Award. Congratulations Kerry!
Marija Tabain has returned from maternity leave. She will be in touch with people soon to call for abstracts for a Workshop on the Phonetics and Phonology of Australian Aboriginal Languages to be held at La Trobe University on the 3 & 4th of December.
Tonya Stebbins is a member of a team recently awarded substantial funding to develop an interdisciplinary unit on Academic and Professional Writing for first year students at La Trobe.
Tonya Stebbins
From the Newsletter of the Linguistic Society of Australia No. 1 (early-mid 1973):
It was decided at the recent Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society that a regular newssheet is needed to keep members in touch with what is going on in Linguistics in Australia, e.g. linguistic events, visitors from overseas, linguistic courses or linguistic components of courses at various Universities, staff engaged in teaching linguistics etc. Dr. Bruce Sommer has been elected as editor of the newssheet and whilst he is on a field trip in Queensland, I [Heidi Platt] will act as a "stand in".
From Tim's archive
A local Workshop on Word-class-changing derivations in typological perspective continues meeting fortnightly, on Wednesday from 4.00 - 5.30 p.m. All linguists from the Melbourne area (or from elsewhere) are warmly invited to take part in this and in the following workshops. The contents page of the Position paper is available on the RCLT website. A hard copy of the paper can be obtained by writing to Sasha Aikhenvald, at a.aikhenvald-at-latrobe.edu.au.
Our international workshop on 'The Semantics of Clause Linking' will take place between 13 and 18 August 2007. The program involves local, national and international presenters:
For full details on the workshop, please see the program at http://www.latrobe.edu.au/rclt/Workshops/2007/2007page.htm.
The following books have been reissued as paperbacks, making them more accessible to many people.
Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald. Forthcoming. The Manambu language of East Sepik, Papua New Guinea. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Sheena Van Der Mark's comprehensive reference grammar of Vinitiri, a previously undescribed Austronesian language from East New Britain, Papua New Guinea has been approved.
The second largest Linkage Grant in the history of La Trobe University has been awarded to the team of Profs Aikhenvald, Dixon, Tamis, Trudgill and Osborne, to work on 'Speaking Greek in diaspora: language contact, survival, and maintenance'.
For further information, visit our site http://www.latrobe.edu.au/rclt/.
Siew-Peng Condon
Dr. Myfany Turpin has a Post-doctoral research fellowship based at UQ to document traditional Arandic Songs of Central Australia, funded by the Endangered Language Documentation Program at the School of Oriental and Asian Studies in London. After six months of fieldwork in the NT she has joined us in the Linguistics Program. This semester she is also teaching a course for Anthropology students on Australia's Indigenous Languages and Cultures.
Assoc Prof Ghil'ad Zuckermann, D.Phil. (Oxford), Ph.D. (Cambridge) (titular), M.A. (Tel Aviv) (summa cum laude), has been awarded a 5-year ARC Discovery fellowship for a project entitled "'Revival' in the Middle East: The Genesis of Israeli (a.k.a. 'Modern Hebrew') - Lessons for the Revival of No-Longer Spoken Australian Languages". Ghil'ad has been Gulbenkian Research Fellow at Churchill College, University of Cambridge; has taught in Israel, Singapore, UK and USA; and has held research posts in Austin (Texas), Bellagio (Italy), Tokyo and RCLT (La Trobe). His publications – in English, Israeli, Italian, Yiddish, Spanish, German and Russian – include the books Language Contact and Lexical Enrichment in Israeli Hebrew (Palgrave Macmillan 2003) and Israelit Safa Yafa (Israeli a Beautiful Language) (Am Oved, in press, 2007). He is currently working on two further books: Language Genesis and Multiple Causation, and Language, Religion and Identity. For further details, see http://www.zuckermann.org/.
We were pleased to welcome two visitors from Melbourne who gave talks in the Linguistics Research Seminar.
This month we will welcome two more visitors: Professor Michael Clyne (Melbourne) and Assoc. Professor Dianne Jonas (Yale).
Linguistics at UQ has developed a new series, UQ Working Papers in Linguistics. See below for more details.
John Ingram's new book Neurolinguistics: An Introduction to Spoken Language Processing and its Disorders (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics) CUP (ISBN-13: 9780521791908) will be available very soon.
Rob Pensalfini was awarded a national Carrick citation "For sustained commitment to creating a safe and empathetic learning environment which encourages the development of each learner as a whole person."
Mary Laughren
The following is a list of publications relating to the study of language, received by the Reviews Editor of the Australian Journal of Linguistics. Note that it is not possible to return books to the publisher, and that acceptance of a book implies no promise that it will be reviewed in the Australian Journal of Linguistics. Reviews are printed as circumstances permit, and copies are sent to the publishers of the works reviewed. If you wish to review a book, please contact the Reviews Editor, Alan Libert (Alan.Libert-at-newcastle.edu.au). Note that many books from previous lists of publications received are still available, so you may want to look at them also.
Alan Libert
Fritz, Clemens W.A. (2007) From English in Australia to Australian English: 1788-1900. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang. xii, 297pp. ISBN 978-3-631-56702-9, pb. 51.50 Euros.
From English in Australia to Australian English is the story of how the English language arrived in many different forms in Australia and how it evolved into a uniform variety in its own right. The corpus-based approach used here allowed empirical linguistic investigations that show intricate and intriguing developments. These prove that Australian English is not an ill-defined middle-ground between British and American English; it has its own history and its own future. Millions of words were collected and looked at. Thus the actual language used by settlers and convicts in court, in diaries, in letters, in newspapers, in poems and other text types forms the basis of this book. These results are complemented by in-depth sociohistorical analyses of environments and events that contributed to the formation of an antipodean variety of English.
For further details, visit http://www.peterlang.net/Index.cfm?vLang=E&vSiteID=1&vSiteName=BookDetail.cfm&VID=56702&.
Brian Taylor
Leitner, Gerhard, Clemens Fritz & Brian Taylor (2006) Language in Australia and New Zealand: A bibliography and research database (1788-present). Mouton de Gruyter. On-line database.
Australia and New Zealand are hosts to hundreds of languages whose interaction is at the heart of Language in Australia and New Zealand. English constitutes the natural center and the full range of writings is covered from 1788 to 2001, including dictionaries and glossaries. Comprehensive coverage is given to the other languages – indigenous, European, Asian, and contact languages – that have emerged throughout the history of these nations, especially Kriol, Torres Strait Creole, and Norfolk. The bibliography also includes onomastics and Australian and New Zealand sign language. Other themes covered are the interaction of English with indigenous and non-English-migrant languages; language maintenance, shift, and loss; psycholinguistic and societal factors; language policies; and educational responses.
For a demo version of the database, visit http://www.mouton-online.com/ausbib.php.
Brian Taylor
Announcing a new series of working papers from the University of Queensland!
University of Queensland Working Papers in Linguistics (UQWPL) has just published its first volume, which is available at: http://www.library.uq.edu.au/ojs/index.php/uqwpl/issue/current.
UQWPL is a peer-reviewed periodical (ISSN 1834-965X) which showcases the variety and depth of the research being undertaken by the broader UQ linguistics community. Contributors include staff, students, visiting scholars, and recent graduates. While papers appearing in UQWPL are subject to peer review by two anonymous reviewers, they are also works in progress, and as such often represent the first public airing of a new idea, or suggest research directions and programs, rather than being complete products in and of themselves.
The first volume of UQWPL, edited by recent UQ PhD graduate Andreas Jäger and UQ Senior Lecturer Dr Rob Pensalfini (series editor), contains a variety of papers touching on Second Language Acquisition, structure of Australian Aboriginal Languages, typology, formal syntax, and grammaticalisation in creole genesis.
The second volume, due for publication in early 2008, will focus on Australian Aboriginal languages. Subsequent volumes are planned for publication annually.
Please spread the word about this exciting new publication.
Rob Pensalfini
Papers are sought for a monograph to appear as a special issue of the journal Sociolinguistic Studies (formerly Estudios de Sociolingüistica), titled 'Monolingualism' in December 2008, with the editor for the special issue being Dr Elizabeth Ellis. Sociolinguistic Studies is published by Equinox Publishing in London (http://www.equinoxjournals.com/ojs/index.php/SS/index).
It is widely accepted by linguists that bilingualism and multilingualism are more common worldwide than monolingualism. However research has concentrated on the former two; the implication being that monolingualism is the norm, and that bi/multilingualism constitute aberrant states. In contrast, there is little systematic investigation of monolingualism, and, as Romaine (1995) points out, it would be strange to find a book with the title ‘Monolingualism’. The planned monograph will carry such a title, and the papers it seeks to include will explore the phenomenon of monolingualism from a number of different perspectives. These perspectives might include language ideology, language choice in education, language policy and planning, language awareness, second and third language teaching and others from applied linguistics and sociolinguistics.
Ellis (2006), in one of the first systematic examinations of monolingualism, reviews three major strands of thought. The first is as the ‘unmarked case’ or the norm, against which bilingualism and multilingualism are set as the exception, and this is claimed by several authors to be a common feature of powerful and dominant societies. The second strand of thought is found among those who teach and promote the learning of foreign languages, and presents monolingualism as a limitation on cognitive, communicative, social and vocational potential: a missed opportunity. The third view of monolingualism is more critical, viewing it as an unexamined and dangerous phenomenon which has profoundly negative effects on the development and application of social and educational policy. There is currently no serious literature which argues for monolingualism, or which claims that speaking more than one language is harmful or undesirable. (There are, however, certainly attempts to argue that children will suffer if their education takes place in more than one language (see for example the U.S. English-Only movement (Crawford 2000) and Ruiz’s (1994) contention that ‘bilingual’ has become a synonym for ‘educationally disadvantaged”).
There have been critiques of a ‘monolingual prejudice’ in SLA (Sridhar, 1994, Kachru 1994, Ortega 2007), and of a ‘monolingual fallacy’ in English language teaching (ELT) (Phillipson 1992, Widdowson 1997). Oller (1997) talks of ‘monoglottosis’, a kind of language blindness which Smolicz (1995) terms ‘monolingual myopia’, while Skutnabb-Kangas 2000) levels the charge of ‘monolingual reductionism’ in language policy and planning. The assumption of monolingualism as the norm in courts of law has been blamed for compromising the processes of justice (Eades, 2003). Clyne (2007) lists several aspects of what he terms the ‘monolingual mindset’ of Australian public life, and Ellis (2007) found a profoundly monolingual view of English language learning in the profession of ESL.
Such authors claim, then, that monolingual perspectives dominate in educational testing, in curriculum development and in how literacy is defined, taught and tested. Monolingual worldviews of language and dialect infect policies and processes of determining the origin of refugees, and this can mean the difference between citizenship and statelessness, freedom and detention, life and death. These are not small stakes.
These critiques suggest that monolingualism is deserving of study as a phenomenon in its own right, rather than simply as the invisible and unexamined corollary of bi/multilingualism. Systematic documentation and analysis of the causes and effects of monolingualism might contribute to the awareness of the sources of silent but powerful opposition to societal and individual multilingualism, and to possibilities for resisting it.
Papers are sought which might address, but need not be limited to, the following questions:
Papers which report empirical research studies focussing on monolingualism are especially welcome.
Clyne, M. (2007). Are we making a difference? Australian Review of Applied
Linguistics 30 (1): 3.1–3.14.
Crawford, J. (2000). At war with diversity: US language
policy in an age of anxiety. Clevedon, Multilingual Matters.
Eades, D. (2003). Participation of second language and second dialect speakers
in the legal system. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 23:113-33.
Ellis, E. M. (2006). Monolingualism: the unmarked case. Estudios de
Sociolingüistica 7 (2): 173-196.
Ellis, E. M. (2007). Discourses of L1 and bilingual teaching in adult ESL. TESOL
in Context 16 (2).
Kachru, Y. (1994). Monolingual bias in SLA research. TESOL Quarterly 28 (4): 795-800.
Oller, J. W. (1997). Monoglottosis: what's wrong with the idea of the IQ
meritocracy and its racy cousins? Applied Linguistics 18 (4): 467-507.
Ortega, L. (2007). Conocimiento y Multicompetencia: Dos Retos Contemporáneos
para el Estudio de la Adquisición de Segundas Lenguas. Plenary address. 25th
AESLA Conference (Asociación Española de Lingüística Aplicada). Murcia, Spain,
April 19-21.
Phillipson, R. (1992). Linguistic imperialism. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Romaine, S. (1995). Bilingualism. Oxford, Blackwell.
Ruiz, R. (1994). Language policy and planning in the United States. Annual
Review of Applied Linguistics 14:111-125.
Skutnabb-Kangas, T. (2000). Linguistic genocide in education - or worldwide
diversity and human rights? Mahwah NJ, Lawrence Erlbaum.
Smolicz, J. J. (1995). Language - a bridge or a barrier? Languages and education
in Australia from an intercultural perspective. Multilingua 14 (2): 151-182.
Sridhar, S. N. (1994). A reality check for SLA theories. TESOL Quarterly 28 (4):
800-805.
Widdowson, H. G. (1997). Approaches to second language teacher education.
Encyclopaedia of Language and Education: Vol. 4: Second Language Education.
G. R. Tucker and D. Corson. (Eds.) Dordrecht, Kluwer Academic Publishers: 121-129.
A proposal, consisting of title and draft abstract (150 - 200 words): due 31st August 2007
Submission of full paper (max. 6000 words) for external blind review: due 31st December 2007
All papers will be blind-reviewed by 2 expert reviewers, and acceptance will be subject to reviews, with the final decision being made by the team of Editors: Elizabeth Ellis, Xoán Paulo Rodriguez-Yáñez and Fernando Ramallo.
Publication: December 2008
Papers should be a maximum of 6000 words, excluding references and abstract.
Detailed guidelines for authors can be consulted at: http://www.equinoxjournals.com/ojs/equinoxdownloads/authors/ssguide.pdf
Proposals and enquiries should be addressed initially via email to Dr Elizabeth Ellis, University of New England, NSW, Australia, at: liz.ellis-at-une.edu.au
Liz Ellis
The 5th International Gender and Language Association biennial conference aims to provide researchers worldwide with an opportunity to present their work and share ideas in the fields of language, gender, and sexuality. Keynote speakers include Dale Spender, Anne Pauwels, Surinderpal Kaur, Rachel McKee and Carmen Caldas-Coulthard.
Submissions are invited for abstracts for oral or poster presentations on any topic related to language, gender, and sexuality. Papers should be 20 minutes in length. 10 minutes will be provided for comments and questions.Abstracts of no more than 300 words should be submitted via the conference web-site: http://www.vuw.ac.nz/igala5/.
Abstracts must be received by 30 November 2007.
Authors will be notified by 15 February 2008.Early registration (by 28 March 2008) = NZ$ 300.
Late registration (by 30 May 2008) = NZ$ 350.
Registration for students (by 30 May 2008) = NZ$ 150.
Note : Registration includes the Conference dinner. Registration forms and further details are available at the conference website : http://www.vuw.ac.nz/igala5/
For general enquiries please e-mail igala5-at-vuw.ac.nz.
Janet Holmes
The 18th International Congress of Linguists is to be held on 21-26 July 2008 at Korea University in Seoul.
Abstracts must be submitted by 31 August 2007. Notification of acceptances will be made by 30 November 2007.
For full details about the Congress, including details on how to submit abstracts, specific session and workshop topics, plenary speakers, registration information, and so on, please visit the website http://www.cil18.org/.
David Bradley
Applicants must contact the Head of the host School/Department before 10 August 2007.
Closing date to Research Office: 14 September 2007.
The University of Sydney Postdoctoral Fellowships were established in 1996 to support excellence in full-time research undertaken in any Department or School at the University. The University will be offering up to 10 new Fellowships in 2008. The Fellowships are extremely prestigious and highly competitive internationally in line with equivalent externally funded fellowships. Applicants must have an outstanding track record relative to opportunity in order to be short-listed. Successful applicants are expected to be based full-time at the University for the duration of the Fellowship.
Eligibility: Strong preference will be given to applicants seeking to join the University from another organisation in Australia or from overseas. Applicants currently employed at the University of Sydney or other affiliated institutions (including but not limited to medical institutes) who commenced such employment after the award of their PhD AND on or after 1 July 2006 are eligible to apply. Applicants must have a PhD award dated no earlier than 1 January 2002 and no later than 31 December 2006. Applicants with a PhD awarded by the University of Sydney within the timeframe specified above may apply if they have held a position with another organisation subsequent to the award of their PhD. Applicants wishing to clarify or seek exemption from eligibility requirements must submit a written request to the Research Office by 27 July 2007.
Assessment Criteria: Excellence will be the primary criterion, both in terms of the project and the researcher. Equal weight will be given to the quality of the project and the track record of the applicant relative to opportunity. The research environment in the host Department/School will also be an important consideration.
Application forms: http://www.usyd.edu.au/research/fellowships/postdoc.shtml.
Jane Simpson
The University of Auckland’s Faculty of Arts seeks to appoint a Professor of Linguistics within the Department of Applied Language Studies and Linguistics. The successful applicant is expected to have an established reputation in the field, with a distinguished record in research and publication along with the ability to take a leadership role in research, teaching and the supervision of postgraduate students. The preferred areas of specialization are in either phonology and morphology or psycholinguistics. Strong applications from candidates in related areas may also be considered.
The Department of Applied Language Studies and Linguistics is one of the largest departments in the Faculty of Arts and one of the top departments of its kind in Australia and New Zealand. It offers undergraduate programmes in Linguistics, ESOL and English language teaching and postgraduate programmes up to PhD level in Linguistics and Applied Language Studies. Among departments in the Faculty, it ranks first both in the number of doctoral candidates (currently about 35) and the number of international students. There is a strong research culture within the Department and a very good record in attracting external research grants. The successful applicant will be expected to enhance these existing strengths and should also be willing to take on substantial responsibilities in departmental administration. The current teaching staff number around 23, including a professor of applied language studies, three associate professors, seven senior lecturers, three lecturers and five senior tutors.
Linguistics is a well-established discipline at the University of Auckland, long predating the formation of the present department in 2001. There are existing strengths in sociolinguistics, conversation analysis, historical linguistics, language contact, pidgins and creoles, Austronesian languages and Mandarin to complement and extend the core teaching programme in phonetics and phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics. Staff in Linguistics contribute to programmes in Speech Science and in Logic and Computation, and there are good opportunities for productive collaboration with staff in Asian Studies, Maori Studies, European Languages and Literatures, and Psychology, according to the successful applicant’s interests and area of specialization.
For further information, please contact the Head of Department, Associate Professor John Read on +64 9 373 7599 ext 87673 or email ja.read-at-auckland.ac.nz, or alternatively the Deputy Head for Linguistics, Dr Frank Lichtenberk on +64 9 373 7599 ext 88585 or email f.lichtenberk-at-auckland.ac.nz.
Key Accountability Areas
Closing Date: 7 September 2007
To apply online go to http://www.vacancies.auckland.ac.nz/positiondetail.asp?p=5332. Reference number: A501-07O.
Olivia Monk
Full-time, fixed term, Academic Level A position, RCLT Postdoctoral Research Fellow, at the Research Centre for Linguistic Typology, Bundoora Campus, La Trobe University.
Remuneration package of $67,578 to $72,540 per annum, which includes 17% employer superannuation.
Closing date: Close of Business, Friday, 24th August 2007
Applications are invited for two three-year Postdoctoral Research Fellowships in the Research Centre for Linguistic Typology. They are to commence on 1st December 2007, or soon thereafter.
Applicants should have been awarded their doctorate within the last five years. They should have experience of linguistic fieldwork and will, ideally, have already completed a grammatical description of some previously undescribed language (not their native language) in terms of basic linguistic theory. 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. A Fellowship will not normally be awarded to an applicant who already holds an appointment within the University.
The successful applicant will work as part of a team with Professor Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald, Professor R.M.W. Dixon, and other members of the Research Centre. Ideally, we are looking for one Postdoctoral Research Fellow who will work on a language from South America and one who will work on a language from New Guinea. However applicants with primary interest in another area will be considered. Each appointee will undertake extensive fieldwork and will either (i) produce a comprehensive description of some previously undescribed language; or (ii) pursue an in-depth study of a language contact situation. Option (ii) will only be available to someone who already has good knowledge of one or more of the languages involved in a suitable contact situation (and has undertaken significant analysis on them). The choice of project will be made after discussion between the successful applicant and Professors Aikhenvald and Dixon.
Each 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.
Before making a formal application, potential applicants are invited to communicate with Professor Alexandra Aikhenvald at a.aikhenvald-at-latrobe.edu.au.
Applicants are also invited to visit our website http://www.latrobe.edu.au/rclt.
Sasha Aikhenvald
Two three-year Post-Doctoral Research Fellowships are available, for studying how the grammar of Modern Greek has changed within two immigrant communities. One Research Fellow will study Greek as spoken within multicultural situations in Australia, while the other will work on Greek as spoken in a South American country. The Fellowships are to be held at the Research Centre for Linguistic Typology, in association with the National Centre for Hellenic Studies and Research, both located at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia.
The positions are available from 1st January 2008.
The Research Centre for Linguistic Typology is concerned with language description and with language contact situations. It has about 20 members (PhD students, Post-Doctoral Research Fellows and Visiting Fellows), working on a range of languages and language contact situations from across the world. The successful applicants will work closely with Professor Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald (Associate Director), Professor R. M. W. Dixon (Director) and Professor Peter Trudgill (Adjunct Professor).
The National Centre for Hellenic Studies and Research, whose Director is Professor Anastasios M. Tamis, is concerned with research on Greek language and culture in Australia, and their maintenance. The Research Fellows will also interact with the members of the The National Centre for Hellenic Studies and Research and with Professor Michael J. Osborne, Distinguished Professor at La Trobe University and former Vice-Chancellor of this University.
Further information about RCLT and about NCHSR is available from the respective websites: http://www.latrobe.edu.au/rclt and http://www.latrobe.edu.au/nhc.
Applicants should have a thorough training in modern linguistics, and have native-like competence in Modern Greek. The applicant for the position involving South America should have a working knowledge of Spanish or Portuguese. Applicants should normally have been awarded their doctorate 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. A Fellowship will not normally be awarded to an applicant who already holds an appointment within the University.
The Positions will be full-time, fixed-term (three years) at Academic Level A6, with the commencing remuneration package $65,610 to $70,427 per annum, which includes 17% employer superannuation.
Applications close on Friday 28th September 2007.
Applicants should supply an up-to-date CV together with the names and contact details of three academic referees. The Selection Committee will contact the referees as appropriate. Before making a formal application, potential applicants are invited to communicate with Professor Alexandra Aikhenvald at a.aikhenvald-at-latrobe.edu.au.
Sasha Aikhenvald
The Australian Linguistic Society is the national organization for linguists and linguistics in Australia. Its primary goal is to further interest in and support for linguistics research and teaching in Australia. Further information about the Society is available by clicking here.
The ALS Newsletter is issued four times per year, in the middle of February, May, August and November. Copy for the Newsletter should be sent to the Editor, Tim Curnow (tjcurnow-at-ozemail.com.au) by the end of the first week of February, May, August and November. There is a list of people who are automatically advised that it's time to contribute material; if you wish to be added to that list, send Tim an email.
Unless you paid for several years at a time, or have given the Treasurer your credit card details and permission to use it, subscriptions for ALS are due at the beginning of each calendar year; the year you are paid up to is shown on the address label on the envelope your copy of the Australian Journal of Linguistics comes in. A subscription form is available by clicking here.
The only membership list is maintained by the Treasurer, Doug Absalom (Doug.Absalom-at-gmail.com). If you wish to check your membership status, change your address or make some other enquiry, please contact Doug.