2024 Conference

Empirical data in linguistic research and where it leads: a variety of approaches from fieldwork to R

Academia Grammaticorum Salensis Vigesima Prima conference

July 26th, 2024 – Antalieptė, Lithuania

The 21st International Salos Linguistics Summer School and Conference takes a turn towards methodological topics. This year, with an eye on the synergistic link to the preceding summer school, the Salos Linguistics Conference aspires to encourage discussions on how data selection, treatment, and analysis shape linguistic research outcomes. The use of empirical data in today’s linguistics varies greatly; thus, we invite scholars from all frameworks of linguistic research to give talks on a variety of methodological questions. Moreover, in line with the traditional openness of the Salos community, we also welcome presentations that showcase results from all frameworks of linguistic research, ideally presented in light of the empirical data chosen for the study or with a reflection on how the results may have been shaped by the choice and treatment of the data.

The topics for abstracts include, but are not limited to, the following themes:  

• methodological issues of linguistic fieldwork
• issues related to data annotation
• empirical database development projects and their reusability
• issues of application of statistical methods for linguistic analysis
• studies on little/poorly-documented languages and language varieties, such as dialects and other non standard varieties, along with research methodologies

The conference will feature a poster session for participants of the Salos summer school (more info here) and a keynote by Eitan Grossman (Hebrew University of Jerusalem).

Please apply by submitting your abstract here until May 31st.

Notifications of acceptance will be sent out by June 16th.

Registration for participants without a presentation will be open in June.

Applicants for the conference are also invited to attend the Salos Summer School. More information and the application form can be found here.

If you are participating in the summer school, there is no additional fee for the participation in the conference.

Participation fee for the conference only amounts to 100 Euros (70 Eur for members of the Academia Salensis association) and covers:

• transportation from Antalieptė to Vilnius (27th July)*
• full board (three meals per day)
• lodging in the monastery (2 nights, shared rooms)
• coffee breaks
• conference reception

*Participants of the summer school will travel to Antalieptė on July 21st. The organizers will help the conference participants organize their travel from Vilnius to Antalieptė on July 25th. The participants of both the summer school and conference will travel back to Vilnius by bus on July 27th.

Accommodation and board

Attendants of the summer school will be accommodated in a fomer Discalced Carmelites monastery, Inovatorių slėnis cultural hub, Antalieptė, in the same building complex where the lectures are held. Hosting a summer school at such a unique location imposes certain lodging conditions: the participants will remember what a summer camp and a shared room feels like. Whereas this might be a challenge for some, it also fosters a sense of community and offers opportunities for discussing linguistic topics well into the night – if everyone in the room agrees on that, of course. The rooms at the monastery are plain, but clean and the number of beds per room ranges from 4 to 9. Toilets and showers are communal. If you are a fan of a healthy lifestyle, a swim in the lake instead of a shower in the morning is an option that has proved popular in the past.

There is a café in the monastery, but full board (three meals daily) is provided by the organizers (the cost is included in the attendance fee). The food is simple yet tasty, rooted in the local cuisine and prepared with care and dedication by the local women of Antalieptė. When completing the registration form please indicate whether you have any special dietary requirements and our local cooks will do their best to accommodate them. There are a shop in the village where you can buy basic food items, sweets, snacks, and drinks.

Social program

The uniqueness of the summer school is also connected to its venue. The event takes place in a historic monastery in the small village of Antalieptė in North-Eastern Lithuania. Participants get away from all other distractions and spend a week solely in the company of nature and other linguists. They live at the monastery, share meals, and spend evenings by the lakeshore, around the campfire, engaging in lively discussions and singing along in a variety of languages. The pond right beside the monastery (or a lake 20 minutes away by foot) offers the possibility for a swim – even during the break between the lectures.

The summer school traditionally has been accompanied by other cultural events: concerts, theater performances, village fairs. This year is also set to include a range of activities which are usually attended not only by linguists, but also by the locals from Antalieptė.

Contact us

You can contact us by sending an email to info@academiasalensis.org. Follow us on social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram), where we post news, photos and impressions from the summer school and conference.