Call for Papers

The Formal Approaches to South Asian Languages [FASAL] conference is the main North American venue dedicated to the presentation and discussion of linguistic research on South Asian languages. 

We welcome all submissions that draw on data from South Asian languages (including Austro-Asiatic, Dravidian, Indo-Aryan, and Tibeto-Burman languages) to make novel insights into the nature of the language faculty. 

• We particularly welcome submissions on under-researched and endangered South Asian languages.

• We encourage submissions from minority groups including researchers located in South Asia and South Asian diaspora communities. 

• We encourage interdisciplinary submissions that incorporate experimental,  computational, acquisition or fieldwork into linguistic theory-building.

Special session 

We especially welcome submissions relevant to this year’s special theme of locality in South Asian languages. Constraints on long-distance dependencies have been part of linguistic theorizing for decades but, as data from previously less–studied languages and language families comes to light, these theories must be continually adapted to accommodate the full range of attested patterns. South Asian languages have proved to play in invaluable role in advancing linguistic theory in this way (see discussion of relevant literature below). On that note, we welcome contributions that shed light on (anti-)locality restrictions in grammar with data from South Asian languages. We also welcome work in the realm of South Asian linguistics that examines locality from the perspective of external factors like acquisition, processing, and computational efficiency. While work on South Asian languages in these domains has historically been underrepresented in the literature, this has changed a great deal in recent years (see selected references below).

Specifications/formatting:

• Font no smaller than 11pt Times New Roman or similar, 

• 1-inch/2.5cm margins

• 2-pages, letter size or A4, including references, examples and title

• Examples and graphics interspersed with the body of the abstract rather than collected at the end 

Key dates:

• Submissions open: October 1, 2023

• Submission deadline (updated!):  January 2, 2024, 11:59pm anywhere on Earth

• Notifications sent: February 15, 2024

Submit abstracts here: [link]