LINGUISTICS ASSOCIATION OF GREAT BRITAIN Spring Meeting 2000: University College London First Circular and Call for Papers The 2000 Spring Meeting of the LAGB will be held from Thursday 6th to Saturday 8th April at University College London. The local organiser is Karen Froud (uclykef@ucl.ac.uk). NB Arrangements for BOOKING ACCOMMODATION are different from previous conferences: you are strongly recommended to book accommodation using the form in THIS CIRCULAR, rather than waiting till the second circular. See details about booking at 5. 1. Geography 2. Accommodation 3. Travel 4. Events 5. Booking 6. Call for papers 7. How and when to submit an abstract 8. Format of abstracts 9. Content of abstracts 10. Conference bursaries 11. Communications 12. Future meetings 13. The LAGB committee 14. Separate conference 15. Booking form 1. Geography Situated in the Bloomsbury area in the centre of London, University College London is within easy reach of many of London's delights: the British Museum and some of Bloomsbury's most beautiful squares and gardens, the bustle and clubs of Soho, the shopping centres at Oxford Street and Regent Street, the market at Covent Garden, Leicester Square's cinemas and restaurants, Theatreland on Drury Lane, bookshops on Charing Cross Road, and many others. UCL forms an integral part of this busy part of London, and its unique city centre location means that the range of facilities and entertainments within a short distance of the university buildings is second to none. 2. Accommodation The accommodation for conference participants is in two locations, both within five minutes' walk from the conference location. + Accommodation in Ramsay Hall (Maple Street, W1) , one of UCL's halls of residence, consists of single bedrooms, with hand wash basins and shared bathroom facilities, offered on a half-board basis (i.e. breakfast and dinner provided) at the bargain price of 28.00 per person per night. This can be booked through the local organiser (see 5). + Accommodation in the Tavistock Hotel (Tavistock Square, WC1) consists of either single or twin bedrooms with ensuite facilities, television and radio, and the price includes full breakfast. The Tavistock also has a wine-bar and restaurant, and a pay garage is available for guests. Prices are 65.00 per night for a single room and 83.60 for a twin room. If you choose to book hotel accommodation, please contact the Tavistock Hotel directly on 0171 636 8383 (you have to ask for reservations), saying that you are attending the LAGB conference as they have reserved a certain number of rooms for us (our contact there is Shauna, who is the reservations manager). Please note that accommodation in Central London in the spring is at a premium, and the rooms reserved for our conference delegates will be allocated on a first-come first-served basis: please complete and return the attached booking form as quickly as possible to be sure of a place. UCL accommodation must be requested and paid for by February 22nd 2000 at the latest; accommodation can be requested later than this but without any guarantee of success. Conference presentations will take place in the main building of the College on Gower Street. 3. Travel Public transport links to UCL are excellent. It is five to ten minutes' walk from the British Rail and Underground stations at Euston and King's Cross. It is also very close to several other stations for the London Underground: Warren Street (Victoria and Northern lines), Euston Square (Circle, Metropolitan and Hammersmith & City lines), Goodge Street (Northern line) and Russell Square (Picadilly line - a direct link from Heathrow airport) are all within ten minutes' walk. Buses, including the A2 direct service to and from Heathrow airport, run to and from nearby Russell Square, King's Cross and Euston Station. Gatwick and Luton airports are readily accessible via British Rail links from King's Cross Thameslink, and trains to and from Stansted airport run from Liverpool Street Station (a short tube journey from Euston Square). Black cabs are also readily available, though these can prove expensive. Driving in London is not recommended because of the high density of traffic and the difficulty and expense of parking. UCL cannot offer parking facilities to conference delegates, though parking if required is available (for a fee) at nearby hotels. Further travel details, including a map of the London Underground, London Bus Services map, and a London Connections map, will be sent out with the booking packs. 4. Events at the conference + The Linguistics Association lecture (Thursday evening), delivered by Professor Mark Steedman (University of Edinburgh). The title will be "The Syntactic Process". + A workshop (Thursday afternoon) on grammar and intonation, organised jointly by Jill House and John Maidment (both UCL). The speakers will include Carlos Gussenhoven (Nijmegen). + A language tutorial (Friday) on Bengali by Gillian Ramchand (Oxford). + A wine party (Thursday evening). + A meeting (Friday afternoon) of the Linguistics At School section on the subject of the National Literacy Strategy, with a presentation from the DfEE's NLS team. Note that the LAGB conference will be preceded by a short conference in UCL which will be organised separately but which will use the same accommodation. See the notice at 14. Enquiries about the LAGB meeting should be sent to the Meetings Secretary (address at 13). Full details of the programme will be included in the Second Circular, to be sent out in February. 5. Booking UCL accommodation cannot be guaranteed unless booked before February 22nd 2000, so it is important to book accommodation NOW, rather than waiting till the second circular. The conference fee and lunches may be paid for later, but accommodation must be paid for when booked. (Payment cannot be refunded after 22nd February.) Accommodation in UCL (at the prices quoted) may still be available after this date, but it cannot be guaranteed. The second circular will contain another booking form which may also be used for accommodation as well as for unpaid conference fees and lunches. 6. 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. 7. How and when to submit an abstract Abstracts must be submitted on paper (not by email or by fax). SEVEN 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 at 13). 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.) 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. All decisions will be made by January 26th, and will be communicated by January 28th, so please send an email to the President (dick@ling.ucl.ac.uk) if you have not received your decision by that date. Abstracts must arrive by 7th January. 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.) 8. 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.uk) (institution) Department of Astrology, Eastern Mars University The normal length for papers delivered at LAGB meetings is 25 minutes (plus 15 minutes discussion). Offers of longer papers (40 minutes) will also be considered: please explain why your paper requires more time than usual, and whether you would accept a 25-minute slot if the committee cannot offer more. If you request 40 minutes, please write this on each of the anonymous abstracts. 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 (7th or 8th April). It is very difficult to reschedule papers after the programme has been planned. 9. 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. 10. 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. 11. 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. 12. Future Meetings 7-9 September 2000 University of Durham. 5-7 April 2001 University of Leeds. Autumn 2001 University of Reading. Spring 2002 (provisional) University of Leicester. The Meetings Secretary would very much like to receive offers of future venues, particularly from institutions which the LAGB has not previously visited. 13. The LAGB committee President Professor Richard Hudson Department of Phonetics and Linguistics, University College London, Gower Street, LONDON WC1E 6BT. dick@ling.ucl.ac.uk Honorary Secretary Professor Anna Siewierska Department of Linguistics, University of Lancaster, LANCASTER LA1 4YW A.Siewierska@lancaster.ac.uk Membership Secretary Dr. David Willis Dept. of Linguistics, University of Manchester, MANCHESTER M13 9PL. david.willis@man.ac.uk Meetings Secretary Dr. Marjolein Groefsema Dept. of Linguistics, University of Hertfordshire, Watford Campus, ALDENHAM, Herts. WD2 8AT. m.groefsema@herts.ac.uk Treasurer Dr. Paul Rowlett Dept. of Modern Languages, University of Salford, SALFORD M5 4WT. p.a.rowlett@mod-lang.salford.ac.uk Assistant Secretary Dr. Gillian Ramchand Linacre College, Oxford University, OXFORD OX1 3JA. gillian.ramchand@linguistics-philology.oxford.ac.uk 14. Separate conference In addition to the LAGB Spring Meeting, the Department of Phonetics and Linguistcs at UCL is organising a CONFERENCE ON THE INTERACTION BETWEEN SYNTAX AND PRAGMATICS. This conference will concentrate on Topic and Focus, but abstracts from other areas that bear on the interface between syntax and pragmatics will also be considered. Invited speakers are Luigi Rizzi and one other (to be announced). The conference is partly supported by the LAGB and UCL. It will be held at UCL before the LAGB meeting, on 5-6 April. The deadline for submissions is 14 January 1999. Details about submission of abstracts will be given in separate mailings. Further details will be posted shortly. For more information contact: Syntax/Pragmatics Conference Committee, Department of Phonetics and Linguistics, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, OR d.bury@ucl.ac.uk (Dirk Bury). ================================================================== 15. Booking form Please send this form and your payment to the local organiser, Karen Froud. You may pay by credit card, so you can use either paper (Department of Phonetics and Linguistics, UCL, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT) or email (karen@linguistics.ucl.ac.uk ). A. Accommodation This form should be used only for booking UCL accommodation (in Ramsay Hall). For hotel booking, see 2 above. Room plus breakfast and dinner, @ £28 per night - fully refundable up to 22nd February. Night of Weds 5th April £......... Night of Thurs 6th April £.......... Night of Friday 7th April £.......... (For other nights, please contact the local organiser.) B. Meals - must be booked by Friday March 3rd. Lunch Thurs 6th April, @ 6 £.......... Lunch Friday 7th April, @ 6 £.......... Lunch Saturday 8th April, @ 6 £.......... C. Conference fee - may be paid at any time before the conference, but MUST be paid by all participants, regardless of whether they use conference accommodation and meals. @ 20 (LAGB member), 25 (non-member) £.......... D. Total enclosed £......... E. Your details Name: Email address: Mailing address (if you want conference details on paper): F. Payment method: F1. Sterling cheque payable to "University College London" ........ F2. Credit card: Visa/Mastercard ........ Card number: ........ Expiry date: ........ Name on card: ........ Billing address: ........ Signature (if by post) (Please note that we do not have an email secure link for credit-card details.) Special requirements Please contact the local organiser directly for special dietary requirements or for baby-sitting.