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Georgetown University Round Table in Languages and Linguistics

Time: 
Friday, March 10, 2017 - 8:30 AM to Sunday, March 12, 2017 - 1:30 PM
Location: 
Georgetown University

Georgetown University announces its 68th successive Round Table in Languages and Linguistics (GURT 2017), to be held 10-12 March.  We are considering all kinds of variable properties in language and seeking something of a unified approach to them.  Many syntacticians look for different parameter settings, sociolinguists look for variable rules, Optimality Theorists capture variation through different constraint rankings, discourse analysts have their own mechanisms, and we all work in our silos.

The meeting will consider variable properties quite generally, focus on their acquisition, and hope to find commonalities.  The variation that we find in language is quite different from what is found in other species and in other areas of human cognition; our memories and our emotional lives do not vary according to whether we were raised in Philadelphia or Pittsburgh and we need a biologically coherent account of why this particular cognitive faculty manifests its variability.

GURT 2017 features plenary speakers, including Maryland's Masha Polinsky, who have done spectacular work on variation and will address the acquisition of variable properties in their talks.  The selected posters and papers cover a fantastic range of variable properties.  The challenge for all of us is to think through where we may be able to identify commonalities.

The program is now on the website at https://gurt.georgetown.edu/program.  Attendees are required to register through our Eventbrite site, gurt2017.eventbrite.com, so that we have a good idea of how many people we need to cater for. Cheaper Early Bird registration is available until 10 February.

Stay up to date on conference announcements by following us on Twitter @GURT2017 and on Facebook at facebook.com/GURT2017.