University College London, 15-18 September 2015

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Workshop on Phonology | Workshop on Morphological Complexity | Summer School

Call for Papers and Themed Sessions

The LAGB welcomes submissions on any topic in the field of linguistics. We particularly welcome papers from areas of linguistics that have not been well represented in previous meetings in order to capture the diversity of linguistics research currently undertaken in the UK and beyond.

All abstracts will be blind-peer-reviewed by an international committee of reviewers. Both members and non-members are invited to offer papers for the meeting. The length for papers delivered at the LAGB 2015 meeting is 20 minutes (plus 10 minutes discussion).

The deadline for submissions is Wednesday 1 April 2015. Notification of acceptance will be made in early June 2015.

Abstracts can be submitted to be included in the general sessions, or as part of a themed session (see below). We particularly welcome submissions that cover themes related to the two workshops taking place at the conference on underlying representations in phonology and on morphological complexity.

Call for individual papers

Individual papers will be considered for presentation in the general session.

Abstracts must be no longer than one A4 page with margins of at least 2.5cm on all sides. Only the first page of any abstract submitted will be considered – no appendices or pages for references can be accepted. If the formatting instructions are not followed the abstract may not be considered. You may use single spacing, with type no smaller than 12 points.

Abstracts must be submitted anonymously and should include no indication of the author’s identity. The submitted files should be in PDF format. Any phonetic characters should either be embedded in the PDF file, or be in the Doulos SIL font, which can be downloaded for free from this site: http://scripts.sil.org/DoulosSIL_download

Call for themed sessions

As well as individual abstracts, we encourage groups of speakers to submit a set of abstracts for a themed session (or panel) on any linguistic subject of their choice. Such groups will normally take up a whole session of the programme. Sessions should ideally consist of five presentations (although sessions of three or six presentations will also be considered).

Themed sessions will run as parallel sessions of the conference. As with papers in the general session, the length for presentations delivered at LAGB 2015 will be 20 minutes (plus 10 minutes discussion).

The abstracts for themed sessions will be considered together, as a group. However, each papers will be judged on its own merits and may be accepted for presentation in the general session if the themed session is not accepted as a whole.

Abstracts for themed sessions should be submitted individually - in the same format as stand alone papers - using Easychair to facilitate the anonymous review process. Abstracts must be no longer than one A4 page with margins of at least 2.5cm on all sides. You may use single spacing, with type no smaller than 12 points.

Abstracts must be submitted individually either by the session convenor or the author(s), but should be clearly marked as belonging to the themed session, with the title for the themed session provided at the top of the page. Do not submit all the abstracts together in a single document.

Session convenors should also prepare a brief synopsis of the merits of the themed session they wish to hold at the LAGB. The synopsis should include the proposed title of the session, the name(s), affiliation(s) and email address(es) of the convenor(s) and speakers and the relevant references cited in the proposal. We particularly welcome sessions with more then one organiser, although one convenor should be identified as the principal contact. The synopsis should be a maximum of two A4 pages in length.

Completed proposals should not be submitted by EasyChair, but emailed to the President by Wednesday 1 April 2015.

Bursaries for student members

A small number of bursaries are available to help unsalaried members of the Association (e.g. PhD students, recent graduates) to attend the Annual Meeting of the LAGB to present a paper. Applications for a bursary must be made by the abstract deadline. There are three types of bursaries available:

Best Student Abstract Bursary

The Best Student Abstract Bursary is awarded to the student member who's abstract was rated highest by our international peer review committee. The award includes:

Free registration for the entire conference
Conference dinner
Up to £250 reimbursement of accommodation costs
Reimbursement for UK-internal travel costs to and from the conference

Presenter Bursary

Presenter Bursaries are available for student/unwaged members who have had an abstract selected for presentation at the conference. The award includes:

Free registration for the entire conference
Up to £50 expenses towards accommodation/subsistence
Reimbursement for UK-internal travel costs to and from the conference

Attendance Bursary

Attendance Bursaries are available for student/unwaged members who submitted an abstract that was unsuccessful in being selected for presentation at the conference. These awards are only made if sufficient funds are available after the Presenter Bursaries have been awarded.

Bursary applications can be made by student/unwaged members by visiting: www.lagb.org.uk/busary

How to submit an abstract

Each person is permitted to submit a maximum of one single-authored paper and one joint-authored paper. All abstracts should be submitted electronically using EasyChair, which can be accessed at the following address: https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=lagb2015

To be able to submit an abstract through the LAGB submission page you must use your existing EasyChair login details or sign up for an EasyChair account (at the link above). Once you have created an account/signed in:

Click on the 'New Submission' link at the top of the page;
Agree to the terms and conditions (if prompted);
Fill in the relevant information about the authors of the paper;
Provide the title of the presentation in the 'Title' box and repeat it in the 'Abstract' box (do not type or paste your abstract in this box);
Type three or more keywords into the 'Keyword' box (these will help us choose a suitable reviewer for your abstract);
Upload a PDF of your abstract by clicking on the 'Choose file' button (leaving the 'Abstract only' checkbox unchecked).

The deadline for submissions to is Wednesday 1 April 2015.

If you are applying for a conference bursary (available only for student members and unwaged members), your abstract should be submitted in the normal way using the EasyChair system, but you must also fill in a bursary application form on the LAGB website: http://www.lagb.org.uk/bursary

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 cite “Author (Date)” in the body of the abstract without giving full bibliographical details.) It is not acceptable simply to promise a solution.
You should explain how you will justify your treatment, and cite crucial evidence. If you are taking a stand on a controversial issue, summarise the arguments that lead you to take up this position.