LINGUISTICS ASSOCIATION OF GREAT BRITAIN

Spring Meeting 2002: Edge Hill College of Higher Education

First Circular and Call for Papers

 

The Spring Meeting of the Linguistics Association of Great Britain will be held at Edge Hill College, from 9th - 11th April, 2002. The local organisers are Patrick Honeybone (honeybop@edgehill.ac.uk) and Kevin Watson (watsonk@edgehill.ac.uk).

The conference website will be at: www.edgehill.ac.uk/acadepts/humarts/english/lagb.htm

Edge Hill College is situated just north of Liverpool, a vibrant city with a world-class reputation for its contributions to popular and classical culture. The Liverpool Tate gallery, the stunning architecture, famous football clubs and the several shrines to the Beatles are just a few of the reasons why visitors are drawn to the city from around the world. Edge Hill is in Ormskirk, an ancient Lancashire market town, which, though it now feels the urban draw of Liverpool, has a history and identity of its own and is within a short distance of the rural beauty of both the Lake District and the Peak District. Ormskirk is also close to the seaside towns of Blackpool and Southport and the vast urban centre of Greater Manchester.

Accommodation: Edge Hill is a compact campus institution where everything is a very short walk from everything else. Comfortable single rooms, both en-suite and with shared facilities, will be available on campus.

Travel: Edge Hill College is easy to reach by rail, air and road. Liverpool is served by regular Intercity and cross-country trains and connections from everywhere in Britain, and there is a direct connection to Ormskirk from Liverpool city centre, thanks to a frequent service on the Northern Line of Liverpool’s suburban railway network. Ormskirk also has a train service to Preston and good links to the UK’s motorway network. Plenty of parking will be available on campus during the conference, as it is taking place during the Easter vacation. The nearest airport to Edge Hill is Liverpool John Lennon Airport, which can be easily reached by public transport or taxi; this is served by regular - and often very cheap - flights from Holland, Ireland, France, Spain, Switzerland and other parts of Europe. Edge Hill is also within close reach of Manchester Airport, the second biggest in Britain, which is served by flights from all around the world.

Events: The Linguistics Association 2002 Lecture on Tuesday evening will be delivered by Professor Judy Kegl (University of Southern Maine).

There will be a Workshop on British Sign Language, organised by Dr Bencie Woll (City University).

There will be a Language Tutorial on British Sign Language, by Dr Bencie Woll (City University).

There will be a Linguistics in Education Session on Wednesday.

There will be a Wine Party on Tuesday night, hosted by Edge Hill’s Research Office.

Enquiries about the LAGB meeting should be sent to the Meetings Secretary (address below). Full details of the programme will be included in the Second Circular, to be sent out in January.

Booking:

A booking form will go out with the Second Circular.

 

Call for Papers:

Members are invited to offer papers for the Meeting; abstracts are also accepted from non-members. The LAGB welcomes submissions on any topic in the field of linguistics; papers are selected on their (perceived) merits, and not according to their subject matter or assumed theoretical framework.

How and when to submit an abstract

Abstracts must be submitted on paper (not by email or by fax). FIVE anonymous copies of the abstract, plus ONE with name and affiliation, i.e. CAMERA-READY, should be submitted, and should be sent in the format outlined below to the President (address below). You must write your address for correspondence (email or surface) on the BACK of the camera-ready copy. (Even if several authors are named on the front, there should be only one name and address for correspondence.)

Abstracts should be accompanied by an account of any special requirements regarding audiovisual equipment (other than an OHP).

Papers for the programme are selected anonymously - only the President knows the name of the authors. Where possible, authors should supply an email address to which the committee's decision may be sent.

Abstracts must arrive by January 8. Abstracts may also be submitted now for the meeting after the next one, but must be clearly marked as such. (In general the abstract deadlines for the autumn and spring meetings are soon after 1st June and 1st January respectively, so an abstract sent to reach the President by that date will always be in time.)

 

Format of abstracts

Abstracts must be presented as follows: The complete abstract (i.e. the one containing your title and your name) must be no longer than ONE A4 page (21cm x 29.5cm) with margins of at least 2.5cm on all sides. You may use single spacing but type must be no smaller than 12 point. If the paper is accepted the abstract will be photocopied and inserted directly into the collection of abstracts sent out to participants, so the presentation should be clear and clean.

The following layout should be considered as standard:

(title) Optimality and the Klingon vowel shift (speaker) Clark Kent (clark@astro.mars.ac.mars) (institution) Department of Astrology, Eastern Mars University

The normal length for papers delivered at LAGB meetings is 25 minutes (plus 15 minutes discussion).

There is the possibility to submit abstracts for a themed session (or panel), i.e. groups of speakers can ask for a whole 2-hour themed session, and can apportion their time within that as they wish. All the abstracts for such a session will be considered together.

The committee will plan the programme as soon as it has selected the successful abstracts, so please indicate on the anonymous abstracts if you cannot present your paper on either the second or third day of the conference (6th or 7th April). It is very difficult to reschedule papers after the programme has been planned.

Content of abstracts

The following guidelines may be useful:

+ You should clearly describe the paper's general topic. (The topic may be a problem of theory or analysis or set of data which have not previously been analysed.)

+ You should describe your treatment of the topic, and how it relates to previous work on the same topic. (When referring to previous work, it is enough to quote "Author (Date)" without giving full bibliographical details.) It is not acceptable simply to promise a solution'.

+ You should explain how you will justify your treatment, and quote crucial evidence - you must trust the committee (and other conference attenders) not to steal your ideas before you have presented them. If you are taking a stand on a controversial issue, summarise the arguments which lead you to take up this position.

Conference Bursaries

Up to 10 bursaries are available for unsalaried members of the Association (e.g. PhD students) with preference given to those who are presenting a paper. Applications should be sent to the President, and must be received by the deadline for abstracts. Please state on your application: (a) date of joining the LAGB (applicants must have been a member at least since the date of the previous meeting); (b) whether or not you are a student; (c) if a student, whether you receive a normal grant; (d) if not a student, your employment situation. STUDENTS WHO ARE SUBMITTING AN ABSTRACT and who wish to apply for funding should include all the above details WITH THEIR ABSTRACT. The bursary normally covers a significant proportion of the conference expenses and of travel within the UK.

 

Communications with the membership

Internet home page: The LAGB internet home page is now active at the following address: http://clwww.essex.ac.uk/LAGB.

Electronic network: Please join the LAGB electronic network which is used

for disseminating LAGB information and for consulting members quickly. It can be subscribed to by sending the message "add lagb" to: listserv@postman.essex.ac.uk.

Nominations for speakers: Nominations are requested for future guest speakers; all suggestions should be sent to the Honorary Secretary.

Changes of address: Members are reminded to notify the Membership Secretary of changes of address. An institutional address is preferred; bulk mailing saves postage.

 

Future Meetings

17-19 September 2002 UMIST
14-16 April 2003 University of Sheffield

Autumn 2003 (provisional) University of Sussex

The Meetings Secretary would very much like to receive offers of future venues, particularly from institutions which the LAGB has not previously visited.

 

The LAGB committee

President

Professor April McMahon

Department of English Language and Linguistics, University of

Sheffield, 5 Shearwood Road, Sheffield S10 2TD april.mcmahon@shef.ac.uk

http://www.shef.ac.uk/english/language/staff/april.html

Honorary Secretary

Dr Ad Neeleman

Dept. of Phonetics and Linguistics, University College London, Gower

Street, London WC1E 6BT ad@ling.ucl.ac.uk

http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/ad/home.htm

Membership Secretary

Dr David Willis, Dept. of Linguistics, University of Cambridge, Sidgwick Avenue,

Cambridge CB3 9DA dwew2@cam.ac.uk

http://www.mml.cam.ac.uk/ling/staff.htm#willis

Meetings Secretary

Dr Marjolein Groefsema, Dept. of Linguistics, University of Hertfordshire, Watford Campus,

Aldenham, Herts. WD2 8AT m.groefsema@herts.ac.uk

http://www.herts.ac.uk/fhle/faculty/humanities/web%20pages/linguistics/MGroefsema.htm

Treasurer

Dr Wiebke Brockhaus

Dept. of German, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester

M13 9PL wiebke.brockhaus@man.ac.uk

http://www.art.man.ac.uk/german/brockhs.htm

Assistant Secretary

Dr Gillian Ramchand

Centre for Linguistics and Philology, Walton Street, Oxford OX1 2HG

gillian.ramchand@ling-phil.oxford.ac.uk