APLL 14

14th International Austronesian and Papuan Languages and Linguistics Conference

The Austronesian and Papuan Languages and Linguistics Research Group is pleased to announce that its fourteenth international conference - APLL14 - will be hosted jointly by the Leibniz Centre General Linguistics (ZAS) and Humboldt University in Berlin on 9-11 June, 2022.

The purpose of the APLL conferences is to provide a venue for presentation of the best current research on Austronesian and Papuan languages and linguistics, and to promote collaboration and research in this area. APLL14 follows two successful online instantiations of APLL, hosted by the University of Oslo in 2020 and by the University of Edinburgh in 2021, as well as previous APLL conferences held in Leiden, Surrey, Paris and London, and the Austronesian Languages and Linguistics (ALL) conferences held at SOAS and St Catherine's College, Oxford.

Previous conferences

Invited speakers

Isabelle Bril (LACITO-CNRS, Paris)

Bethwyn Evans (Australian National University, Canberra)

Eri Kashima (University of Helsinki)

Call for papers

Abstract submission for APLL14 is now open. The Programme Committee welcomes presentations on any aspect of the languages and linguistics of Austronesian and Papuan languages, including descriptive linguistics of individual languages, and comparative and historical studies involving several of these languages. Moreover, we invite abstracts on two special themes that are planned for the conference: language ecology and applicatives. See more on these below.

Presentations will be 20 minutes, followed by 10 minutes of discussion. Each individual may contribute up to two submissions, one of which may be a single-author paper. Abstracts will be peer-reviewed by members of the Programme Committee. Abstracts must be submitted via email to: apll14.conference[a]gmail.com

Abstracts must be no more than two A4 pages in length, including all material such as references, examples, figures, tables, and maps. Abstracts must be anonymous, and set in a minimum of 12pt font. They should be in .pdf format and the filename should start with APLL14, followed by an underscore and then first author’s surname, e.g. APLL14_sonder.pdf. If you have a common surname, please also include initials, e.g. APLL14_jsmith.pdf.

Conference themes

Language Ecology

The Austronesian and Papuan logosphere ranks very high in linguistic diversity, and it remains a puzzle how such a high degree of diversity has developed originally and how it has remained stable despite much language contact and entrenched multilingualism. The concept of language ecology may help to investigate this question in a structured way. The ecology of a language is the network of relationships that a language (i.e. its speakers) has with the other languages it comes in contact with, together with other aspects of its environment that might exert an influence on it. The concept of language ecology, following Haugen (1972), includes factors such as: the genetic classification of the language; the demography of its speakers; its internal variation; its domains of use; other languages used by its speakers; their degree of bi- or multilingualism; its degree of development; whether it has institutional support; the attitudes of its users; as well as the many non-linguistic aspects of its social environment and natural environment. We are interested in papers addressing aspects of the following questions:

What types of bi- or multilingualism are practised in the speech communities of the region?
What are the speakers’ attitudes towards their own language or a neighbouring language?
What are the speakers’ attitudes towards variation and language change?
How do/did language ecologies change in the region? To what degree are they endangered?
How do non-linguistic factors (i.e. the social environment and natural environment) influence the structure of individual languages?

Applicatives

Applicatives are a prevalent morphosyntactic construction in the grammars of Austronesian and Papuan languages, but also play a role beyond its morpho-syntactic function of promoting a peripheral semantic role to direct object as the “applied phrase”. Recent work investigating the morphosyntax of applicative constructions has explored the types of semantic roles applicative morphology targets, the role of stacking/doubling of different applicative morphology, the role of word order of internal arguments, as well as its role in relation to its use in deriving causative constructions. In addition, recent work has noted that the role of applicative morphology can have other non-syntactic functions. Among these functions are pluractionality, iteration, topicality of the applied phrase, specificity of the applied phrase, completeness of the event or affectedness of the applied phrase. These functions, while less studied, seem to be common cross-linguistically. We are interested in papers addressing aspects of the following questions, especially with an eye to broader typological generalizations:

What are the morpho-syntactic functions of applicative constructions in a given Austronesian or Papuan language?
What are the semantic or pragmatic functions of applicatives in a given Austronesian or Papuan language?
What are pathways of change to and/or beyond applicatives in one or more Austronesian or Papuan languages?

Conference programme

The programme is shown below. Papers marked with * will be presented online. All times are UTC+2.

schedule APLL14

Registration

The registration opens on May 1st. If you would like details on how to access the conference, please send your name, affiliation, and email address to apll14.conference[a]gmail.com Please let us also know whether you be participating online or in-person.

Practical information

As we cannot foresee the travel restrictions for June 2022, the conference will take a hybrid format, accommodating both on-site and on-line presentations. All on-site presentations will be live-streamed on-line; and vice versa all on-line presentations will be broadcasted on-site. The conference will take place at Humboldt University.

The conference venue will be at Humboldt University in the Grimm-Zentrum (central library): Geschwister-Scholl-Straße 1-3, 10117 Berlin, the auditorium is located on the ground floor / basement of the building.

Getting around

Most places in the city centre ('Berlin Mitte') are within walking distance. If you want to get around by bus and train, Berlin has a good network of public transport. The station closest to our venue at Humboldt University is called "Friedrichstraße", one of the major train stations in Berlin.

9 Euro Ticket

The German government currently subsidizes a special ticket available for the months of June, July, and August. The ticket price is 9EUR. The ticket holder may travel throughout Germany on local/regional trains, trams and buses. Only the inter-city fast train connections are not part of the ticket. The ticket is valid for a month. More information on the 9 Euro Ticket can be found on the Deutsche Bahn website.