OVERVIEW OF THE TEACHING EXCHANGE

The origin and evolution of language has been a research topic of broad interest since Darwin’s pioneering work. A number of diverse communities, such as linguists, philosophers, psychologists, neuroscientists and ethologists, have tried to explore the communication of animals and compare it to human language, to understand how communicative systems are structured and evolve.

After decades of intense and productive research, most conclusions remain controversially debated, and genuine inter-disciplinary exchanges have remained limited. One of the main obstacles to establishing a common ground across disciplines, and fostering fruitful interdisciplinary research appears to be a lack of consensus on terminology, tools, theoretical approaches and methods. The emerging field of animal linguistics attempts to overcome these difficulties and improve collaboration between linguists, ethologists, and adjacent research communities, by applying formal linguistic methodology to the study of animal communication systems.

The Animal Linguistics Teaching Exchange will take place the week of March 23-27 2020, and will be hosted by the École Normale Supérieure (ENS) in Paris, France.

Our primary purpose is to create a space (through mutual teaching) that fosters an exchange of core knowledge between researchers in linguistics, animal behaviour and adjacent fields; the aim is to do so through theoretical courses, case studies and hands-on training. Participants will have the opportunity to learn about ethological methods in the collection and processing of animal behaviour data, core linguistic concepts and formal analysis, and comparative and evolutionary approaches. The Animal Linguistics Teaching Exchange will focus on several taxa (primates and birds) and different communicative systems (vocal, gestural and postural).

Registration is free but mandatory, before the 31st of January 2019, on the Registration page.

An overarching aim of the Animal Linguistics Teaching Exchange will be to strengthen bonds across disciplines within the research community and facilitate the emergence of future collaborations. To this end, we also invite participants to contribute to the school by way of a poster session with an open call for posters. Title, authors' name and affiliation and a 200-word abstract should be submitted by December 15, 2019, to animal.linguistics@gmail.com.

FOR FINANCIAL SUPPORT, WE THANK: