Sociolinguistics Symposium 20: Language, Time and Space, June 15-18, 2014

Sociolinguistics Symposium 20

The bi-annual Sociolinguistics Symposium, arranged in Europe since 1970, is the leading international conference on language in society. The 20th Conference was hosted by the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. The theme of the conference was Language, Time and Space.

The conferences discussed fundamental issues in sociolinguistics and discourse studies, not only by rethinking our present understanding of these disciplines but also by imagining their future frontiers. Main areas of interest were connectivity and trajectories of language resources in time and space; how language practices change, vary and alternate in their different geographical, social and political contexts; and how they come together in different nexuses emerging from what can be called ‘rhizomatic’ circulations.

Keynote speakers:

Professor Adrian Blackledge, University of Birmingham:

  • Language, Marriage Migration, and the Law

Professor Monica Heller, University of Toronto:

  • Trajectories and Discursive Spaces in the Construction of « National » Identity

Professor Barbara Johnstone, Carnegie Mellon University:

  • Beyond “Enregistered Dialects”: Linguistic Form and Social Meaning in Time and Space

Professor Terttu Nevalainen, University of Helsinki:

  • Historical Sociolinguistics: from the Wave Model to the “Third Wave” and Beyond

Organizing Committee:

Sari Pietikäinen, conference chair (Department of Languages)

Kati Dlaske (Department of Languages)

Hannele Dufva (Department of Languages)

Taru-Maija Heilala-Rasimov, conference coordinator (Faculty of Humanities)

Tarja Nikula (Centre for Applied Language Studies)

Terhi Paakkinen, conference secretary (Department of Languages)

Anne Pitkänen-Huhta (Department of Languages)