LingFest HQ (aka Transient Building) is stacked with boxes of large blue bags paid for by publishers in return for inserting flyers (that's why the bags are so large). You could probably eat the bags, they're so enviro-friendly. 30 keen student volunteers are zooming around in between (we/they hope) doing brilliantly on their exams, (they have set up a Googlegroups for coordinating volunteers with an online spreadsheet and forms that beat hands-down our Open Conference Systems/Events Pro conference site (I like the idea of OCS, I liked the old version (used in the Papuan Languages workshop successfully), but the implementation of this one at the hands of an inexperienced central IT crew..., sigh and super sigh). And the organising committee is pondering deep questions such as - is it possible to have a book launch without alcohol? (Answer: of course not - this is Australia, we Don't DO teetotalism).
The program for the Austronesian Formal Linguistics Association (Marshallese, Malagasy, Indonesian, Seediq, Samoan...and more), is here.. The program for the Papuan languages workshop is here (One, Fas, Oksapmin...). The program for the International Lexical Functional Grammar Conference is here (Gunwinyguan, Turkish, Sinhala, Welsh..). Other programs include those for the Australian Linguistics Society [.pdf], and for the Applied Linguistics Association of Australia [.xls].
You can find out all about the units on offer for the Australian Linguistics Institute here [.pdf]. Units of particular interest to Transient Languages readers include:
ii) Bi- and multilingualism - Michael Clyne (Hon Professorial Fellow, University of Melbourne, also Emeritus Professor, Monash University)
vii) Sign Language Linguistics and Grammaticalisation - Louise de Beuzeville and Trevor Johnston (Sign Language Linguistics Group Macquarie University)
x) Sociolinguistics and the law - Diana Eades (University of New England)
x) Complex words and Complex predicates - Mark Harvey (Newcastle) and Brett Baker (UNE)
xi) Sociophonetics - Jennifer Hay (University of Canterbury)
xii) Encoding the speaker's perspective in grammar: A case study of Japanese - Nerida Jarkey, (University of Sydney), and Harumi Minagawa, (University of Auckland.)
xxvi) Australian Aboriginal Languages in Lexical-Functional Grammar - Rachel Nordlinger (University of Melbourne)
xviii) Language and Cultural Values - Prof Cliff Goddard, (University of New England, Armidale); Prof Anna Wierzbicka, (Australian National University, Canberra).
xxi) Contact language typology - Ian Smith (York University)
We encourage you to register soon, to give us an idea for rooms and catering. People who want to register for only one ALI course are asked to contact the LingFest administrative officer, Andrew Yip, andrew_yip XX optusnet.com.au, as soon as possible.