Funding for the conference. The conference webiste can be accessed here. 

The 32nd Conference of the Student Organisation of Linguistics in Europe (ConSOLE32)

The 32nd Conference of the Student Organisation of Linguistics in Europe (ConSOLE32) was held from 17th to 19th January 2024 at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL). This annual meeting brought together linguistics students, early-career researchers, and senior academics from around the world to exchange research and discuss state-of-the-art advancements in the field of linguistics.

Throughout the 3-day-programme, there were 18 oral presentations and 21 poster presentations. These presentations covered a wide array of topics that are related to formal linguistics, experimental linguistics, and sociolinguistics, for instance: ‘Binding Relations in Split DPs’, ‘No A-bar Movement Approach to Tough-Constructions’, ‘Acquisition of French Object Clitics by L2 Children’, ‘Reconstruction in German ATB Movement’, ‘Perception of French Speech-in-Noise’, ‘Speech Production Patterns of Children in a Multilingual Community’, and many others. Participants were not only provided an exciting opportunity to showcase their work, but also received feedback and suggestions from peers and experts alike. ConSOLE32 successfully promoted constructive dialogue and collaboration among the coming generation of linguists.

ConSOLE32 also featured 5 esteemed keynote speakers: Prof Devyani Sharma (QMUL), Prof Peter Svenonius (The University of Tromsø - The Arctic University of Norway), Dr Bronwen G. Evans (University College London), Dr Sophie Holmes-Elliott (QMUL), and Dr Danfeng Wu (University of Oxford). All of the speakers shared with audiences their expertise and insights on a diversity of linguistic topics. More importantly, these speakers demonstrated to the young generation that different subfields of linguistics (e.g., syntax and sociolinguistics) can be closely combined and make enormous contributions to our understanding of cross-linguistic phenomena from an unexpected perspective.

ConSOLE32 was made possible by the funding from the LAGB Postgraduate Student Committee (and other two external funding sponsors). Thanks to the funding, ConSOLE32 was allowed to provide refreshments for every participant and charge no registration fees at all, making the event accessible for researchers from all financial backgrounds. All of the attendees found ConSOLE32 an enjoyable and unforgettable experience both professionally and socially.

Funding for the conference.  The LingO website can be accesed here.

Funding for the event.  The MFiL website can be accessed here. 

Funding for the conference.

LAGB Report: Kent Undergraduate Linguistics Conference

The University of Kent Undergraduate Linguistics Conference ran on Monday the 3rd of April, and offered our undergraduate students a chance to present, share, and discuss their research. After settling down with refreshments, an outline of the day was presented to attendees and the first presentations began. Topics from across the discipline were presented, which included: the terms of reference in TV detective shows, research into the appropriation of African American English by Asian celebrities, syntactic development in children, studies into the linguistic identities held in Hong Kong, and the individual’s ability to spot fake news headlines. 

Each student presented for 15 minutes, then entered a Question-and-Answer discussion with their peers and staff for another 5, with a committee member of the English Language and Linguistics Society chairing to ensure timings were followed. Some students instead chose to share their dissertation work via a poster session, which facilitated open discussion around the room, as attendees shared their thoughts on all the research presented at the conference. Following this, some students, staff, and the guest speaker moved to continue the linguistic discussion over dinner.  

Our guest speaker for this year’s conference was Dr Ella Jeffries, a sociolinguist and lecturer from the University of Essex. She gave a passionate talk on one of her recent research projects, which studied children’s categorisation of speakers by regional accent. It involved two experiments, conducted in York, that explored the various properties of speech that children use as markers to infer accent, and it was highly informative and interesting. As a committee, we are extremely grateful that Dr Jeffries accepted our invitation to attend and speak.

After the conference, we took Dr Jeffries out for drinks and treated her to dinner, which was made possible by the funding from the LAGB. The funding also allowed us to provide refreshments and create programmes for the event, which was warmly received by attendees and made the day fun and excitable. Students who presented found the conference an enjoyable end to their university time and relished the opportunity to gain some valuable feedback on their dissertations. 

The English Language and Linguistics Society greatly appreciate the funding granted by the LAGB which overall made the Undergraduate Linguistics Conference a huge success!