45th Annual Conference on African Linguistics (ACAL 45)

Call for Papers

45th Annual Conference on African Linguistics (ACAL 45)

The 45th Annual Conference on African Linguistics will be held at the University of

Kansas from April 17-19, 2014. The theme of this year’s conference is “Africa’s Endangered Languages: Documentary and Theoretical Approaches”. 

In addition to plenary sessions featuring eminent scholars, ACAL 45 will feature three sessions: a main session, a poster session, and a workshop based on the conference theme. For the main and poster sessions, papers addressing any subfield(s) of linguistics in relation to the study of African languages are welcome. These include, but are not limited to:

• Computational Linguistics

• Historical Linguistics

• Language Acquisition (i.e. first, second, or additional language)

• Language Pedagogy

• Lexicography

• Morphology

• Neurolinguistics

• Phonetics

• Phonology

• Pragmatics

• Semantics

• Sign Language

• Sociolinguistics

• Syntax

• Typology

For the workshop sessions, we invite papers that deal directly with endangered or highly

threatened African languages from either a documentary or theoretical perspective (or

both). Workshop sessions will be organized by methodological approach (i.e. there will

be documentary sessions and theoretical sessions) and in an attempt to create a dialogue between practitioners of both approaches, they will be moderated by a linguist of the opposite persuasion.

All abstracts will be blind reviewed for their originality, quality, and relevance. Main

session talks will be allocated 20 minutes for presentation with a 10 minute question and answer period. Poster presentations will be displayed for a 2 hour block of time.

Workshop talks will be allocated 25 minutes for presentation and 15 minutes for discussion.

Submission Guidelines

All abstracts should be anonymous and written in English with glosses or translations for words or examples in any other language. Each abstract, including the title and any data in figures or tables, must not exceed 500 words. The 500-word abstract should be singlespaced and in a font no smaller than 11 point. A separate page should accompany the abstract and include the following information: author’s name(s), institutional affiliation, the session the paper is being submitted to (main session, poster session, or workshop), and contact information, including e-mail address. Abstracts may either be submitted electronically in PDF format to the e-mail address below or via postal mail on a CD/DVD to the address that follows. Faxes will not be accepted.

Electronic Submissions

To submit electronically, please send abstracts to the following address: acal45@ku.edu.

The subject line of the message should read “ACAL 45 Abstract”. In the text of your email, please include the following contact information (we recommend you paste the

following fields into the body of your message):

Title (e.g. Dr. Prof, etc.):

First name:

Last name:

Suffix (e.g. Jr., Sr., etc.):

Institution:

Title of presentation:

Email address:

Postal Submissions

To submit via postal service, please mail a CD/DVD containing a PDF of the abstract to the following address:

ACAL 45 Organizing Committee

c/o Jason Kandybowicz

Department of Linguistics

University of Kansas

1541 Lilac Lane

Blake Hall, Room 427

Lawrence, KS 66044-3177

Deadline

The deadline for receipt of abstracts is Sunday December 1, 2013 at midnight (central

time). Please be advised that late submissions may not be considered. Because of visa

requirements, prospective international participants are urged to submit their abstracts at the earliest date possible.

Participants will be notified about the outcome of their submission by January 20, 2014.

Contact Information

For more information, you may email the conference organizers at acal45@ku.edu or visit the conference website (www.acal45.ku.edu).