LINGUIST List 13.2073

Mon Aug 12 2002

FYI: Research Funding, BAAL 2002 Book Prize

Editor for this issue: Marie Klopfenstein <marielinguistlist.org>

Directory

James Simpson, BAAL 2002 book prize

Message 1: Invitation to Apply

Date: Fri, 2 Aug 2002 12:09:17 +0100
From: Najma Hussain <nh32soas.ac.uk>
Subject: Invitation to Apply

Dear all

The Endangered Languages Documentation Programme has just published its first invitation to apply for funding. Full details of the programme and application forms are available on the ELDP web page http://www.eldp.soas.ac.uk

For information I attach and have pasted below the text of the invitation to apply document, I should be grateful if you would disseminate the existence of this programme as widely as possible. The deadline for submission of preliminary applications is the 11th October 2002.

Please direct any queries to myself (contact details below) or my colleague Mrs Maureen Gaskin 020 7898 4022 mailto:m.gaskineldp.soas.ac.uk

Many thanks

Jacqueline Arrol-Barker

j.arrolbarkereldp.soas.ac.uk

Mrs Jacqueline Arrol-Barker Endangered Languages Documentation Programme SOAS, Thornhaugh Street Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG United Kingdom

Tel +44 (0)20 7898 4021 Fax +44 (0)20 7898 4199

Prelim Invitation 2002

A. A new programme for the documentation of endangered languages.

1 The Lisbet Rausing Charitable Fund has initiated a programme of grants to support the documentation of endangered languages, and has appointed the School of Oriental & African Studies, London University [SOAS] to administer the programme.

2 The general rationale of such a programme will be familiar to potential applicants: the pace at which languages are becoming extinct is increasing throughout the world. Furthermore, since only about one-third of the world' s languages have literate traditions, the vast majority of languages which die will leave no substantial record of themselves, or the cultural traditions that they have sustained. Quite apart from the loss of individual cultural expressions, this process reflects a grave diminution in human and cultural diversity and a loss of the knowledge on which they are based and which they embody.

3 The objective of the present programme is twofold: to encourage the development of linguistic fieldwork in endangered languages, especially by younger scholars with a grounding in linguistic theory, who will thereby also be provided with support between basic graduate work and the possible assumption of university positions; and to support the documentation of as many threatened languages as possible, focused on where the danger of extinction is greatest, facilitating the preservation of culture and knowledge, and creating repositories of data for the linguistic and social sciences, and of course for indigenous communities. Such documentation should, therefore, have regard not only to the formal content and structure of languages, but also to the varied social and cultural contexts within which languages are used. In addition to the intellectual quality of applications, principal grounds for support will be the degree of endangerment, the urgency of the issues, and the extent to which the grant promises to develop expertise in as well as knowledge of field linguistics and endangered languages.

Please address any enquiries to:

The Endangered Languages Documentation Programme School of Oriental and African Studies Thornhaugh Street Russell Square London WC1H 0XG, UK http://www.eldp.soas.ac.uk

Mrs Jacqueline Arrol-Barker Mrs Maureen Gaskin Documentation Programme Manager Research Grants Administrator Tel: 020 7898 4021 Tel: 020 7898 4022 email j.arrolbarkereldp.soas.ac.uk email m.gaskineldp.soas.ac.uk

B. How the programme operates: general procedures and timetable.

Who can apply? 4 Applications are invited from researchers with qualifications in linguistics, including the potential for or experience of field linguistics. Projects may be undertaken by research teams or individuals (including suitably qualified graduate students). As a truly international programme, there is no restriction on either the nationality of applicants or the region(s) where the proposed documentation research is to be undertaken.

Are any institutional links required? 5 In all instances the applicant(s) should have, or be in a position to develop, a formal link with a university or comparable research institution. The university/research institution will be expected to administer the grant, be responsible for its proper expenditure, and submit regular and authenticated accounts of the expenditure.

What types of grants are available?

6 The core of the programme will be grants to support projects for the documentation of individual or closely related endangered languages. The three main types grants will be: Postdoctoral Fellowships, Graduate Studentships and Major Documentation Projects.

6.1 Postdoctoral Fellowship applications will be entertained from individuals seeking their own support costs for up to two years (or if adequately justified, three years) duration. In addition to fieldwork costs, salary costs for the period may be sought. It is anticipated that all postdoctoral fellowship applicants will be academically junior and/or young researchers.

6.2 Graduate Studentship applications will be entertained from individuals seeking their own support costs for up to two years (or if adequately justified, three years) duration. In addition to field trip costs, a stipend may be sought to cover the period whilst undertaking field research and processing the results. Support is only available to individuals who (at the time the award is due to commence) will have successfully completed appropriate graduate training extending over at least one year.

6.3 Major Documentation Project applications by an established principal investigators will be entertained. Such applications could involve a number of elements including fieldwork, salary costs of one or more researchers and stipend costs of graduate students (while engaged in the field and processing work) whose doctoral work will contribute to the project as a whole. Applicants may request support for between 6 months and three years. In exceptional cases support for four years may be considered. Applications for small as well as fairly large grants will be considered.

7. In addition to the three main types of grant, two further types of grant may, in exceptional circumstances, be considered: Field trips and Pilot Projects.

7.1 Field trip applications may be submitted for relatively brief fieldwork trips - between 6 and 12 months duration. In such cases, preliminary or supplementary research should very substantially prepare for or advance the documentation of a language or languages which are either closely related to languages already well documented or which themselves have already been the subject of substantial documentation.

7.2 Pilot Project applications may be submitted for the purposes of assessing and demonstrating the feasibility of a larger project. The duration should be between 6 -12 months and field trips will normally be involved.

8 It is expected that for each of the three main types of grants outlined in paragraph 6 above, at least a survey grammar and dictionary will be produced, where these do not already exist (see paragraph 15.3(c) in the Invitation to submit a detailed application, posted on http://www.eldp.soas.ac.uk.

What is the submission process and timetable?

9 Applications will be considered by a small international panel once a year. The deadline for the first competition for grants will be 11th October 2002, and decisions will be taken in February 2003, although this timetable may vary in future years.

Preliminary Application Deadline

10 Applications will be considered in two stages. In the first instance applicants should submit a completed Preliminary Application Form. A copy is attached at Annex A to this booklet and further copies can be obtained from www.eldp.soas.ac.uk. In this first round Preliminary Applications must be received no later than 11th October 2002.

Detailed Application Deadline

11 Invitations to a limited number of applicants to submit detailed applications will be despatched no later than the end of November 2002. The closing date for receipt of detailed applications will be about 10th January 2003. However, these dates may be extended in light of changing circumstances. For the structure and content of the detailed application, please consult the Programme's website http://www.eldp.soas.ac.uk.

Referee requirements

12 Applicants are advised that if invited to submit a detailed application, they must ensure that their two referees are prepared to submit their comments by the 17th January 2003.

How will the application be assessed?

13 All outline and detailed applications will be assessed by the small international panel. The panel membership is detailed at the front of this booklet. Panel members have been selected to serve in their capacity as scholars and researchers in the field. Based on its assessment, the panel will submit its final recommendations to the Lisbet Rausing Charitable Fund. In making its assessments at the detailed application stage, the panel may consult independent referees.

Announcements

14 Grants will be announced by late February 2003. The earliest possible starting date for any project is April 2003. Projects must commence within 12 months of the date of the offer letter.

What kind of costs are eligible?

15 Eligible costs include:

Personnel � teaching replacement costs of Principal Investigators, in teaching posts, while on extended field trips

� the salaries of research and technical assistants

� stipend costs of the individual applicant (graduate student application only) normally for up to 2 (or if justified 3) years primarily devoted to fieldwork and the processing of the results

� salary costs of the individual applicant (postdoctoral fellow application only) normally for up to 2 (or if justified 3) years, where not currently in a salaried position

� costs of employing indigenous collaborators and participants and securing co-operation

� stipend costs of a graduate student engaged full-time on the specific project as part of a team (major documentation project application only) for up to 3 years.

Fieldwork Expenses

� travel and subsistence expenses of fieldwork (including insurance costs) � supplementary training costs for field researchers and local participants � equipment (necessary fieldwork items only)

Other Costs � supplies of consumables, office and communication costs directly associated with the project � workshops or colloquia necessary for the completion of the project � reasonable (i.e. modest) compensation to the 'home' institution for the costs of managing the grant budget. The amount claimed will have to be justified.

Please note that the grants awarded under this scheme will be cash limited in sterling. Therefore applications may include a reasonable estimate for changes in salary costs only.

16 Personnel costs are allowable at the standard rates of the relevant country. Where appropriate these should be linked to national pay scales.

What kind of costs are ineligible?

17 Ineligible costs include:

� overheads and indirect costs, other than the costs of managing the budget

� maternity and sickness pay

� publication and dissemination costs, other than the costs of duplicating material for electronic distribution

� equipment other than fieldwork items.

� claims for personal subsistence (other than whilst undertaking fieldwork abroad)

What will become of a Project's outcome?

18 In addition to creating local repositories of data for the linguistic and social sciences, it will be a requirement of funding that the outcomes of all projects [including copies of recordings and videos] will be ultimately deposited within the ELDP Central Archive which is to be housed at SOAS. The outcomes should also be placed on a website.

What are the reporting requirements?

19 The terms and conditions of any grant awarded will be detailed in the offer letter. In summary, successful applicants will be required to submit regular reports which will include a statement of accounts. In the event that a report is considered unsatisfactory, funds may be withheld, the award revised or amended or, ultimately, the funding terminated. In all cases, a fixed percentage of the grant will be held back until submission and approval of the final project report.

20 The university (or comparable research institution) responsible for administering the award will, if requested by the ELDP administration at SOAS, provide accounts for the award to be examined by a recognised auditor, to certify that the expenditure of the grant has been in accordance with the agreed terms and conditions. The books, records and financial procedures of the university, relevant to the grant, shall be open to inspection by any body or individual appointed for the purposes of inspection.

Extensions and supplementary grants.

21 Applications for extensions of existing grants will not normally be accepted. Applications for supplementary grants will only be accepted in exceptional cases. Transfers between budget categories may be permitted in certain cases - these will be detailed in the offer letter.

C. General instructions for making a Preliminary Application.

22 Preliminary Applications may be submitted in one of five categories:

Main application types � Major Documentation Project (Annex A - MDP) � Individual Postdoctoral Fellowship (Annex A - IPF) � Individual Graduate Studentship (Annex A - IGS)

Exceptional application types � Field Trip Grant (Annex A - FTG) � Pilot Project Grant (Annex A - PPG)

Applicants are invited to complete the appropriate Preliminary Application Form at Annex A in full. This must be completed in English and comply with the eligibility requirements detailed in this booklet. Please do not send additional documentation (other than that requested on the form) in support of your application.

23 Applications will be assessed and those which appear to conform to the Programme's expectations as to importance and quality will be invited to submit a more detailed application. The information requested in the Preliminary Application is general in form. However, applicants will need to be confident that they can satisfy the policies and procedures relevant to detailed applications, in the event that they are invited to submit such an application. Further, it will be advisable to take account of such policies and procedures, and begin preparatory work on a possible detailed application, since there will not be much time between an invitation to submit a detailed proposal and the closing date for its consideration. Applicants are therefore strongly advised to consult the detailed application procedures as outlined on the Programme's website http://www.eldp.soas.ac.uk.

24 Preliminary Applications in response to this first call should be submitted so as to reach SOAS no later than 5pm on Friday 11th October 2002. All proposals should be addressed to:

Mrs Jacqueline Arrol-Barker, Documentation Programme Manager School of Oriental and African Studies, Thornhaugh Street, London WC1H 0XG, UK

Please ensure that you supply the following: � your original application � 11 double-sided copies (each set individually stapled). � An e-mail copy of the application sent to: j.arrolbarkereldp.soas.ac.uk

25 Whilst applications are not checked for completeness immediately, applicants will receive an e-mail in the form of a reply version of the application, to confirm that the electronic version has been received.

26 Late or incomplete applications can not be accepted. Please note that amendments to the text after the closing date will not normally be accepted.

D Project Characteristics 27 Looked at generally, documentation projects should be:

� Accessible and usable, to both members of the language community and the wider scientific community.

� Secure against abuse, to protect the rights of the community originating the data.

� Permanent, to guarantee long-term survival of the data.

� Cumulative, to allow existing data to be supplemented and annotated.

� Focused on languages whose continued existence is most at risk.

� Comprehensive, to include records of the widest possible range of linguistic data (in as wide a variety of social and cultural uses as possible) currently available, including audio, video, written materials, grammatical descriptions, monolingual and bilingual lexicography.

� Built on common notation standards, which presupposes as little as possible about the content of the data or the specific purposes to which they can be put, but also allow an optimum level of practical access.

� Presented to the public worldwide, in the interests of attracting support and emulation to tackle the vast problem of language endangerment. (However, access will be restricted for up to three years after the period of data gathering and collation to allow for scholarly use of the material by the grant holder.)

For specific information about the standards and requirements to be expected in detailed applications see the procedures described in the Programme's website at http://www.eldp.soas.ac.uk

Message 2: BAAL 2002 book prize

Date: Sun, 04 Aug 2002 15:17:40 +0100
From: James Simpson <j.e.b.simpsonreading.ac.uk>
Subject: BAAL 2002 book prize

_____________________________________________________________________ The 2002 BAAL Book Prize shortlist is:

Chris Brumfit INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM IN LANGUAGE TEACHING Oxford University Press.

Manfred Gorlach A DICTIONARY OF EUROPEAN ANGLICISMS Oxford University Press.

Stephen May LANGUAGE AND MINORITY RIGHTS Pearson Education.

Brian Street (ed.) LITERACY AND DEVELOPMENT: ETHNOGRAPHIC PERSPECTIVES.Routledge.