LINGUIST List 5.1073

Sun 02 Oct 1994

Confs: Symposium on Language Loss, IATL winter workshop

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1. Garland Bills, Call for Papers: Language Loss
2. Anita Mittwoch, IATL winter workshop

 CALL FOR PAPERS

 Symposium on Language Loss and Public Policy
 in conjunction with the
 1995 Linguistic Institute of the Linguistic Society of America
 University of New Mexico
 Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
 June 30-July 2, 1994

The Symposium on Language Loss and Public Policy will bring together scholars
from different disciplines to discuss the linguistic, psycholinguistic,
sociolinguistic, cultural, and policy aspects of language loss. LANGUAGE LOSS
is used here in its broadest sense to subsume three areas of investigation:

 (1) the ATTRITION of native language skills by individual members of
 indigenous and immigrant communities;
 (2) societal SHIFT from the use of the native ethnic language to the use
 of a dominant official language; and
 (3) the consequent DEATH of the subordinate language.

The clear interrelationships among these three areas -- in the linguistic
processes involved and especially in the societal conditions that give rise to
loss -- gives a meeting such as this Symposium considerable scholarly
significance. The fact that the incidence of linguistic and cultural
disruption worldwide is rapidly accelerating also makes the need for such a
Symposium pressing.

The presenters will explore with each other and with other participants in the
1995 Linguistic Institute the accumulated knowledge in the three areas of
language loss in order to arrive at a more global understanding of the
relationships among the linguistic processes in loss, its underlying causes,
its consequences for individuals and societies, and the implications for
policy intervention.

Central objectives of the Symposium will be, in light of what is known about
language loss, to examine its ecological significance, that is, its effects on
individuals, communities, and society as a whole, as well as the policy
implications of what is now seen to be a worldwide and rapidly accelerating
phenomenon. Another important objective is to provide information to members
of the wider community both as an educational objective and as a resource for
those concerned with questions of policy.

Persons intending to submit a formal abstract for the Symposium should send an
expression of interest by November 1, 1994. This preliminary submission should
include a tentative title and specification of the language situation(s)
examined, the area of language loss that will be the emphasis of the report,
and whether the paper will focus on the nature and causes of loss or on the
consequences of loss and policy implications.

The deadline for receipt of formal abstracts providing greater details is
January 31, 1995. Abstracts should not exceed 500 words, and may be submitted
by regular mail, FAX, or electronic mail.

In order to make papers available to other participants in advance of the
Symposium, presenters will be asked to submit pre-publication versions of
their papers by May 15, 1995. Publishable versions of the papers will be due
at the Symposium.

Preliminary expressions of interest, formal abstracts, and requests for
additional information should be directed to:

 Garland D. Bills
 Department of Linguistics
 University of New Mexico
 Albuquerque, NM 87131-1196
 USA

 Telephone: (505) 277-7416 or (505) 277-0324
 FAX: (505) 277-6355
 E-mail: gbillsbootes.unm.edu

The deadline for abstracts for the workshop on the Syntax-Semantics
interface, to be held at the University of Ben Gurion, Be'er Sheva, has
been extended to November 10th.
Abstracts should be sent to Fred Landman, Department of Linguistics,
University of Tel Aviv, Ramat Aviv 69978, Israel.