Call for Papers: Morphosyntactic Variation and Change in the 21st century (extended deadline)
27-29 May 2020, University of Cambridge

The study of morphosyntactic variation and change is currently entering an exciting stage in its evolution where sociolinguistic, formal and big-data approaches are able to inform each other in insightful ways. For instance, big data allows more robust testing of hypotheses developed using the other approaches than traditional small-scale studies. An understanding of social and geographic context allows formal approaches to tease apart phenomena which might otherwise be opaque. Formal approaches make links across phenomena that might otherwise be catalogued separately. The aim of this conference is to bring together researchers working on ongoing variation and change using one or more of these approaches. We aim to further the dialogue between them in order to help reach a full understanding of the processes which guide morphosyntactic variation and change.

This conference is part of the project ‘Tweetolectology: Investigating the diffusion of morphosyntactic innovations using social media’, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

We are very pleased to announce the invited speakers for this conference:
Suzanne Evans Wagner (Michigan State)
Jim Wood (Yale)
Øystein Vangsnes (Tromsø)

Organisers:
David Willis (Cambridge)
Tam Blaxter (Cambridge)
Deepthi Gopal (Cambridge)
Adrian Leemann (Bern)

SUBMISSION INFORMATION
We invite submissions for presentations related to the study of morphosyntactic variation and change. We especially welcome work with a focus on languages other than English, especially understudied languages. Please submit all abstracts through EasyChair (https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=mvc21, requires login) in 12-point Times New Roman on a single A4 page – an additional page may be included for figures if necessary.

Assistance with the cost of attendance will be available for some student and unsalaried presenters.

IMPORTANT DATES
Submission deadline: 13 February 2020 (extended deadline), anywhere on earth.

Notification of decisions: 28 February 2020.