National Seminar on India as a Linguistic Area: Exploring Shared Features Across Language Families (ILAESFALF)

Date: 04-Mar-2025 - 06-Mar-2025
Location: New Delhi, India
Contact: Dr Hari Madhab Ray
Contact Email: [email protected]
Meeting URL: https://sites.google.com/view/ilaesfalf2025/

Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics
Subject Language(s): English (eng)

The Centre for Linguistics, SLL&CS, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, India, is pleased to announce a two-day National Seminar on “India as a Linguistic Area: Exploring Shared Features Across Language Families” on 4th and 5th March 2025 and a workshop on “Writing Grammars” on 6th March 2025 in collaboration with Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), Mysuru and ALS Indigenous Languages, ALSphere Foundation. This two-day seminar and one-day workshop will be an initiative towards exploring India as a linguistic area, language contact, linguistic convergence and divergence, areal Linguistics, language maintenance and shift, language variation and change, languages and dialects in contact, linguistic diversity and language harmony, typological features, intangible cultural heritages, common and shared linguistic expressions and discourse structure of Indian languages. In addition to various paper and poster presentations, there will be panel discussions and plenary talks on the related theme. The seminar will end with a workshop on ‘Writing Grammars’ on the third day.

Concept Note:
‘Linguistic area’, as defined by MB Emeneau (1956), is ‘an area which includes languages belonging to more than one family but showing traits in common which are found not to belong to other members of (at least) one of the families’. It is a geographically contiguous area characterised by the existence of common linguistic features shared by genetically non-related languages. It is not necessary to have a bundle of isoglosses to define an area as a ‘linguistic area’. Areal linguists' works like Emeneau (1965, 1980), Ramanujan and Masica (1969), Winter (1973), Masica (1976), Abbi (1985) and Abbi and Mishra (1988) have taken one particular linguistic trait as a diagnostic trait to identify a ‘linguistic area’. Thus, a single areal isogloss may be considered the minimum defining feature. On the basis of a single isogloss or a bundle of isoglosses, a ‘linguistic area’ may be defined as ‘weak’ or ‘strong’ (Campbell, Kaufman and Smith-Stark 1986:532). However, understanding ‘India as a Linguistic Area’ is a manifestation of the linguistic reality of India in terms of areal diffusion or convergence linguistics, contact and shift of languages, spatial pressures rather than genealogical affiliations (Khubchandani 1991), waves of mutual influence rather than a tree model (Matisoff 1978), population movements (La Polla 2001), language contact and shift of languages.

Theme for Abstracts:
We wish for a high degree of participant involvement and encourage critical enquiry and debate related to the Indian Linguistic Area, shared linguistic features across language families, cultural heritages and common linguistic expressions of Indian languages. The seminar will entice language experts, researchers and policymakers in this three-day event to throw light on multidisciplinary themes, ranging from the core areas of linguistics to India as a linguistic area, language contact, linguistic convergence and divergence, areal linguistics, language maintenance and shift, language variation and change, languages and dialects in contact, linguistic diversity and language harmony, typological features, intangible cultural heritages and common linguistic expressions of Indian languages, discourse markers, multilingual education (MLE), translanguaging and second language teaching, language policy and planning, stylistics and literary studies, historical linguistics, language technology, translation, applied linguistics, linguistic innovation and borrowing and structure of lesser-known languages etc.

Abstract Submission Guidelines:
Prospective authors are invited to submit abstracts for oral and poster presentations in the above-mentioned areas. The abstract should be limited to 500 words, excluding references typed in MS Word/PDF, Times New Roman, 12-point font, and single spacing with one-inch margins on all sides. The abstract must be anonymous; it must not include the name(s) of the authors, affiliations, designations, etc.
The authors must indicate their choice for oral or poster presentations. Only one single-authored or joined-authored abstract will be considered for the peer-reviewed process. The seminar and the workshop will be offline; however, a few abstracts/papers may be selected for online presentation. The participants may mark their choice for online/offline mode of presentation in the Google Form. Any change of mode will not be entertained later. Best oral and paper presentations shall be awarded. The abstracts and other queries should be sent to the email ID [email protected]. After sending the abstracts/papers, one has to fill out the required details in the Google form. The link is given below. Filling out the Google Form is MANDATORY after sending the abstract through email. Visit the website https://sites.google.com/view/ilaesfalf2025/ for more details.

STEPS FOR SUBMITTING AN ABSTRACT: Send abstracts to [email protected] and fill out the Google Form provided below.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScxfzqqG1TlCam_PToqnIrse_cRMZrlDqVfOyY_DB3v_Oprvg/viewform

Last Date of Submission of Abstract: 10 February 2025
Notification of acceptance of Abstract: 16 February 2025
Last date of registration: 25 February 2025
Dates of the Seminar: 4-6 March 2025

Visit the website https://sites.google.com/view/ilaesfalf2025/ for details regarding registration and fees.

Coordinators:
Dr Hari Madhab Ray (Convener), Centre for Linguistics, JNU
Dr Sujoy Sarkar, CIIL, Mysuru
Dr Bishakha Das, ALS Indigenous Languages

Contact:
Email Id: [email protected]
Website: https://sites.google.com/view/ilaesfalf2025/
www.jnu.ac.in