FirthDay 2010

2nd Call for Papers

17th June, Khalili Lecture Theatre,
School of Oriental and African Studies, London

As the UK's first Professor of General Linguistics, J. R. Firth influenced generations of linguistics scholars down to the present day. His innovative approaches to phonological theory (Prosodic Analysis), semantics (collocational analysis), and other aspects of language remain influential today, and if anything continue to grow in their impact.

As a celebration of the 120th anniversary of his birth, and to mark fifty years since his death, there will be a day of talks and remembrances. Papers are invited in any of the many areas of linguistics which interested Firth, including:

• Phonetics
• Prosodic phonology
• South Asian languages, especially those of India, Pakistan and Burma (especially where treated in a "Firthian" manner)
• Semantics, Pragmatics, and 'context of use'
• Anthropological linguistics and language in society
• Applied linguistics and linguistic policy
• History of linguistics (including the history of linguistics in Firth's own time)

Papers may be written from any perspective, past or current, but should be of interest to the broad range of participants who are likely to attend. Papers will be peer-reviewed and published. Time will also be made for remembrances, reflections and comments (of a few minutes each, or longer by arrangement), and there will be an exhibition of important items from the Firth archives at SOAS and York.

Refreshments, a buffet lunch and an early evening wine reception will be provided. It is hoped to raise sufficient sponsorship to keep the registration fee as low as possible, with free registration for students.

To celebrate the long and close connection between Firth and the Philological Society, the Society intends to offer a number of travel grants to enable postgraduate students to attend this event. If you would like to apply for funding, please contact the Hon. Treasurer, Dr Philip Durkin, by email to treasurer@philsoc.org.uk by 1 April 2010; you should ask your supervisor to write to him in support of your application. Please note this extended deadline.

The programme will be finalized in early April. If you wish only to attend (not give a paper), please email or write to the Programme Chair as soon as possible, before 28th January. Further details about the meeting will be posted at http://www.phon.ox.ac.uk/FirthDay

John Coleman
Oxford University Phonetics Laboratory
41 Wellington Square
Oxford OX1 2JF, UK
john.coleman@phon.ox.ac.uk

We warmly appreciate the support of the Philological Society, the Henry Sweet Society for the History of Linguistic Ideas, and the Department of Linguistics, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.