LINGUIST List 6.1787

Sat Dec 23 1995

All: International Conferences in Linguistics

Editor for this issue: Anthony M. Aristar <aristartam2000.tamu.edu>

Directory

1. "Bethany Dumas, UTK", Re: 6.1762, All: International Conferences in Linguistics
2. Brunette Louise, Re: 6.1762, All: International Conferences in Linguistics
3. Amy L Sheldon, Re: 6.1762, All: International Conferences in Linguistics
4. Vicki Fromkin , Re: 6.1762, All: International Conferences in Linguistics
5. Michael K. Launer, dues and fees
6. Bertinetto Pier Marco, subscriptions' cost

Message 1: Re: 6.1762, All: International Conferences in Linguistics

I'd be surprised to learn that many departments pay conference fees
regardless of how much they are. My dept., which is absurdly generous
with travel money right now, maxes out at about $100.

Further, everbody has a max for prof travel for the year. So that $100
I might pay comes out of finite funds.

The notion that there is money somewhere to pay any amount is totally
unrealistic for most of us.

Bethany Dumas
English, UTK

Message 2: Re: 6.1762, All: International Conferences in Linguistics

I recently had to pay 500 $ AUD for registration at the International
Congress of la Federation Internationale des Traducteurs to be held
next February in Melbourne. This is far too much... but LINGUIST
subscribers have been asked for comparative data... here are some

Louise Brunette
Fax & telephone : (514) 344-4053
E-mail : brunettltornade.ere.UMontreal.ca
Montreal, Quebec

Message 3: Re: 6.1762, All: International Conferences in Linguistics

Has anyone accounted for what costs the high fee is used to cover?

Message 4: Re: 6.1762, All: International Conferences in Linguistics

I fully understand the concern and complain re the registration fee
for the ICL 97 meeting in Paris. And I think the request for
information about fees for similar congresses as well as previous
ICL's should be helpful in seeing whether this is really out of line.
I think we will find that this fee is actually similar to or below
other such international congresses. I am fairly certain the
International Congress of Phonetic Sciences in Stockholm last summer
was higher than the announced fee but my memory may be playing tricks.
I have asked the Secretary-General of CIPL and the President of the
Congress to get this information. In addition, I know that Professor
Steven Wurm, of Australia, a member of the CIPL Executive Committee is
trying to get support from UNESCO to help lower the student fees.

I do think that the International Congress should be supported. It is
a major important historical event which goes back to 1928. Perhaps a
little information about CIPL (Committe International Permanent
Linguistique) will be of interest to readers of LINGUIST:

History and Background of the Permanent International Committee of
Linguists (CIPL):

	a. CIPL was founded in April 1928 during its First
International Congress held in The Hague under the initiative of
Professor C.C. Uhlenbeck of Leiden University and Professor
J. Schrijnen of the University of Nijmegen. Because of its place of
origin and the financial support provided by the Dutch government,
CIPL has always had close ties with The Netherlands. Except for the
Norwegian scholar, Professor A. Sommerfelt who served from 1945 until
1964, all those who have held the office of Secretary-General have
been Dutch linguists. The Secretary- General (Professor P.E.J. van
Sterkenburg elected at the 1962 General Assembly) in consultation with
President R. Robins of the United Kingdom and the Executive Committee
directs the activities of CIPL and maintains contact with a number of
international organizations.

	b. The members of the Executive Committee elected in August
1992 to serve until the 1997 General Assembly meeting are: President
R. Robins (UK), Vice President P. Auger (Canada, -- Chair of 1992
Congress), Vice President K. Inoue (Japan), Secretary-General P. van
Sterkenburg (The Netherlands), M. Anwar (UAE), A. Bamgbose (Nigeria),
V. Fromkin (USA), B. Garza-Cuaron (Mexico), F. Kiefer (Hungary), P.
Ramat (Italy), and S. Wurm (Australia) and honorary members (who were
present at the founding meeting) E. Haugen (USA) (now diseased) and B.
Malmberg (Sweden).

	c. There are 50 countries which have been elected to
membership of CIPL. Each country remits an annual contribution
(minimum $200/year). Expenses for the activities of CIPL are covered
by membership contributions, an annual subvention from UNESCO, special
contributions (at present from Great Britilan, Sweden and the USA to
the amount of $1500/year) and by a large grant from the Dutch
government. Many of the member countries have not made their
contribution for many years. One way CIPL can continue in its work is
through receiving a percentage of the registration fees paid to the
International Congresses.

	d. Shortly after the Second World War (1946), at a meeting of
CIPL held in Paris, the decision was taken to compile a bibliography
of all the linguistic publications which had appeared during the war
years. Thanks to a subvention from UNESCO, two volumes were published
in 1948 covering the period 1939-1947. Since then, with the support of
UNESCO, the linguistic bibliography has been published annually.. At
the 1997 congress, the bibligraphy will be available on CD ROM.

	e. In addition to the publication of the Linguistic
Bibliography, CIPL is responsible for the organization of
international congresses in close collaboration with national
committees and institutions of linguistic research. Twelve congresses
have been held: The Hague 1928, Geneva 1931, Rome 1933, Copenhagen
1936, (a 1939 scheduled congress in Brussels was canceled because of
World War II), Paris 1948, London 1952, Oslo 1957, Cambridge, Mass,
USA 1962, Bucharest 1967, Bologna 1972, Vienna 12977, Tokyo 1982,
Berlin 1987 and Quebec 1992.

	f. The third major project of CIPL is the Endangered Languages
Project, established at the 1992 congress and Executive Committee
meeting with additional members added at the 1993 Executive Committee
meeting... A report on this project is summarized in the letter from
Secretary-General van Sterkenburg to UNESCO, which is included as an
addendum to this report.


Anyone who has attended an international congresses will attest to the
gratification of meeting colleagues from fifty countries who are
specialists in all areas of our discipline. There is no other
organization or congress that is as broad and all-inclusive both in
area as well as theoretical position as is the International Congress
of Linguists. I hope to see you all in Paris, July 1997.

Vicki Fromkin

On 21 December, Peter Daniels wrote:

Also, isn't it the case that for most professional meetings, the
scholar's (and so much more so the business person's) institution pays
the fees from a specified budget? So the price is relevant only to
those of us who are without instututional affiliation?

God Bless the University of Chicago. Most public supported
universities, such as the one at which I teach, can barely afford to
cover the air fare to one US based conference per year, with no per
diem or hotel bill coverage, much less the conference fee. Get real,
as they say on the football duds commercials.

Hallo everybody.

The recent posting by Martin Haspelmath concerning the participation
fees to the International Congress of Linguists has drawn my attention
to a related problem, that we are all facing. I am referring to the
cost of the various journals to which our institutions subscribe. The
situation has lately become dramatic. Even rich institutions had to
make substantial cuts in recent years. And this is obviously the case
also with my institution, considering the less than optimal state of
the Italian currency. Lately, we have been told that our library
should cut up to 20% of our subscriptions. Which is of course a very
dramatic cut. Given the situation, I inspected the list of the
linguistic journals, and I made some interesting discoveries. Namely,
that the cost of the various journals varies considerably. Let me give
you a few examples. Since the prices in Lire would not mean much to
you, let's reason in relative terms. Let us take the price of
"Glotta" as reference, assigning to it the value 1. With this in mind,
it turns out that:

Behavioral and Brain Sciences = 4
Brain and Language = 10
Bulletin de la Societe de Ling. Paris = 3,5
Cahiers de Lexicologie = 1
Canadian Journal of Linguistics = 0,5
Cognition = 15
Computational Linguistics = 2
Diachronica = 2
Etudes Linguistique Appliquee = 1,5
Functions of Language = 1,5
General Linguistics = 1
Historiographia Linguistica = 4
Indogermanische Forschungen = 3
Int. J. Sociology of Language = 5
J. Child Language = 2
J. of Linguistics = 1,5
J. of Memory and Language = 5
J. of Neurolinguistics = 5
J. of Phonetics = 4
J. of Pragmatics = 9,5
J. of Psycholinguistic Research = 9
J. of Semantics = 2
J. of Acoustical Soc. America = 16,5
Langages = 1
Language & Cognitive Processes = 5
Language & Speech = 3,5
Langage Sciences = 4,5
Lingua = 12
Linguistic Analysis = 2,5
Linguistic Inquiry = 2
Linguistics = 8
Linguistics & Philosophy = 5,5
Mind & Language = 3

Let me stop here. I believe this is quite enough for my purpose. I am
of course aware that the price of a journal results from various
factors, among which at least the following: number of pages per year
and type of publication (involving more or less typographical
complications). However, I do not think this accounts for all the
differences emrging from the merely suggestive list that I gave
above. I think we are all clever enough to realize that some
publishers are intrinsically more expensive than others. Let me put it
frankly: some publishers exploit the position of dominance that they
have acquired on the market (certainly because of the generally good
quality of their production) to tax the subscribers. Whether this is
right or wrong, it would perhaps be a good subject for a discussion
among the international community. My opinion, if I may venture to
express it, is that things have definitely gone a bit too far. Many
institutions in the world simply cannot afford buying the most
expensive journals; and this situation is probably going to get even
worse. Shouldn't we try to do something about it? Shouldn't there be
some form of pressure from the international community to induce some
publishers (we all know which ones) to reduce the cost of their
publications to a more decent and bearable level?

Best wishes to everybody for the New Year!

Pier Marco Bertinetto, Scuola Normale Superiore (Pisa)


 ||||
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