The 18th International Conference on Role and Reference Grammar (RRG) will take place as an in-person meeting on July 14 and July 15, 2025, in Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan, hosted by the Graduate School of Humanities, Kobe University.

The committee invites proposals on original research relating to any aspect of linguistics that uses Role and Reference Grammar (Van Valin and LaPolla 1997; Van Valin 2005, 2023; Bentley, Mairal Usón, Nakamura and Van Valin 2023). We encourage papers dealing with further elaboration of RRG in areas such as morphology, syntax, semantics, information structure, as well as language processing and language change. Papers on lesser studied languages and those that adopt a comparative or a typological approach are especially welcome.

Submissions are invited for 25-minute oral presentations (+ 5 min. Q&A).

Please submit an anonymous one-page abstract, not exceeding (and very close to) 500 words, including examples (references and tables/figures may be  on the second page), by Jan. 31, 2025, in PDF format, via EasyAbs system on the Linguist List).

Please use a few representative words from the title as the filename (e.g., aktionsart_korean_verbs.pdf) to maintain the file’s anonymity.

Authors may submit one individual and/or one co-authored abstract.

-Please ensure that your PDF's document properties show no author name.

If you used a word document, please Go to File > Info > Check for Issues > Inspect Document and remove personal data first, and then save it as pdf. (This is for PC. Mac may be different).

-Please add the 'word count' at the end of the abstract. 

Thank you for your submission. Abstract submission was closed at 11:59 pm on January 31, 2025, Japan Standard Time (UTC +9)). 

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FYI: This is an in-person only meeting.

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Important dates:

• Abstract submission: Jan 6-31, 2025 (Deadline: 11:59 pm on January 31, 2025, Japan Standard Time (UTC +9)) (Closed)

• Notification of acceptance: Feb. 28, 2025

• Conference dates: July 14 and July 15, 2025

• Lilián Guerrero (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México)

• Robert D. Van Valin, Jr. (University at Buffalo, The State University of New York / Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf)

• Sergio Ibáñez (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México)

• Hideki Kishimoto (Kobe University)

• Ranko Matasović (University of Zagreb)

• Wataru Nakamura (Tohoku University) 

• Rainer Osswald (Heinrich Heine University)

• Luis Paris (Universidad Nacional de Cuyo/CONICET)

• Joy Wu (National Taiwan Normal University)

• Hideki Kishimoto (Kobe University)

• Kiyoko Toratani (York University)

• Prashant Pardeshi (National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics)

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• For questions, please contact: ktora [at] yorku.ca (no space, and replace [at] with the symbol).

Graduate School of Humanities, Kobe University, will consecutively host two independent international meetings. The 18th International Conference on Role and Reference Grammar (RRG2025) (July 14-15, 2025) will be followed by The International Argument Alternation Workshop (IAAW)  (July 16-17, 2025). 

• Kobe University

• York University

• National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics 

Supporting organizations

• Bentley, Delia, Ricardo Mairal Usón, Wataru Nakamura and Robert D. Van Valin, Jr. 2023. The Cambridge Handbook of Role and Reference Grammar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

• Van Valin, Robert D. Jr. 2005. Exploring the Syntax-Semantics Interface. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

• Van Valin, Robert D. Jr. 2023. Principles of Role and Reference Grammar. In Delia Bentley, Ricardo Mairal Usón, Wataru Nakamura and Robert D. Van Valin, Jr. (eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Role and Reference Grammar, 17-177. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

• Van Valin, Robert D. Jr., and Randy LaPolla. 1997. Syntax: Structure, Meaning and Function. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.