Linguistics Conferences

Contents of this page

How to find out about upcoming conferences
General (theoretical) linguistics conferences
Specialized conferences for particular subfields

How to find out about upcoming conferences

One excellent resource is the LINGUIST List [www.linguistlist.org].

Subscribe to their mailing list and receive e-mail messages about topics in the categories that you select, including “Calls for Papers” for conferences
Read LINGUIST messages about calls for papers directly online

Another useful resource is the Cascadilla Proceedings Project, which gives free online access to the proceedings papers from several conferences.

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General (theoretical) linguistics conferences

Major conferences, with wide participation

(+) indicates conferences where UNC students have presented papers or posters.

The conferences listed in this category have a published conference proceedings. If your abstract is accepted as a conference talk, your paper will also be included in the proceedings — so you end up with both a presentation and a publication. Proceedings papers are usually due several months after the conference takes place, and they often have a limit of about 12 pages.The conferences in this category tend to be pretty competitive, but they are also prestigious. This means that they are likely to attract a lot of good linguists in the audience (who can give you useful comments on your work), and they are particularly nice to have on your CV.

BLS | Berkeley Linguistics Society (info) (+)

Conference happens: Spring (February)
Abstracts due: Fall

CLS | Chicago Linguistic Society (info) (+)

Conference happens: Spring (April/May)
Abstracts due: Winter

GLOW | Generative Linguistics in the Old World (info) (2022)

Conference happens: Spring
Abstracts due: Fall/winter

LSA | Linguistic Society of America (info) (2022) (+)

Conference happens: Early January
Abstracts due: Summer–Due July 15 2022
Comments: Large audience; good exposure for job-seekers

NELS | North East Linguistics Society (Info) (2021) (+)

Conference happens: Fall (October/November)
Abstracts due: Spring/summer

WCCFL | West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics (2022) (+)

Conference happens: Spring (March/April)
Abstracts due: Fall/Winter

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Smaller regional conferences

(+) indicates conferences where UNC students have presented papers or posters.

Some of the conferences listed in this category have a published conference proceedings.

ALC | Arizona Linguistics Circle (info) (2021)

Conference happens: Fall/Winter
Abstracts due: Summer/Fall–Due July 23 2022

FLYM | Florida Linguistics Yearly Meeting (2020)

Conference happens: Spring
Abstracts due: Winter

ILLS | Illinois Language and Linguistics Society (info) (+)

Conference happens: Spring
Abstracts due: Fall/winter
Comments: Student travel awards

LASSO | Linguistics Association of the Southwest (info) (2021)(+)

Conference happens: Fall
Abstracts due: Spring/summer
Comments: Focus is on languages in the southwestern US and Mexico, and maybe on (new) empirical data rather than theoretical work

LCUGA | Linguistics Conference at U. Georgia (info) (2021) (+)

Conference happens: Fall
Abstracts due: Summer

NWLC | Northwest Linguistics Conference (2022) (+)

Conference happens: Spring
Abstracts due: Winter
Note: Student-focused conference

PLC | Penn Linguistics Conference (info) (2022) (+)

Conference happens: Spring
Abstracts due: Fall/Winter

SECOL | Southeastern Conference on Linguistics (info) (2022) (+)

Conference happens: Spring
Abstracts due: Winter
Comments: Student participation is encouraged; good chance to meet linguists from around the region

TLS | Texas Linguistics Society (info)

Conference happens: Spring
Abstracts due: Fall

UALC | University of Alabama Languages Conference (info)

Conference happens: Winter
Abstracts due: Fall

WECOL | Western Conference on Linguistics (2021)

Conference happens: Fall/winter
Abstracts due: Summer/fall

WIGL | Workshop in Generative Linguistics (U Wisc) (info) (2020)

Conference happens: Spring
Abstracts due: Fall/winter

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Specialized conferences for particular subfields

(+) indicates conferences where UNC students have presented papers or posters.

Many of the conferences listed in this category have a published conference proceedings, but in some cases only selected papers from the conference are included in the proceedings. Some of these conferences are extremely competitive.

Computational linguistics

NAACL | North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics (2022)

Conference happens: Summer
Abstracts due: Winter

SCiL | Society for Computation in Linguistics (info) (2022)

Conference happens: Early January (with LSA)
Abstracts due: Summer

Forensic linguistics

Forensic Linguistics Conference (2019)

Conference happens: Fall
Abstracts due: Spring

Heritage-language linguistics

Heritage Language Research Institute (2022)

Conference happens: Summer
Abstracts due: Spring

International Conference on Heritage/Community Languages (2022)

Conference happens: Summer
Abstracts due: Fall/winter

Workshop on Immigrant Languages in the Americas (WILA) (info) (2022) (2022)

Conference happens: Fall
Abstracts due: Summer–Due July 15 2022

Historical linguistics / Indo-European linguistics

American Philological Association (info) (2023)

Conference happens: Winter (January)
Abstracts due: Late spring
Comments: For papers on any aspect of Latin or Greek

American Oriental Society (info) (2022)

Conference happens: Spring (March)
Abstracts due: Fall (Oct/Nov)
Comments: For historical papers on any language of Asia, from Ancient Near East to South Asia to East Asia; any theoretical approach is welcome, but paper should also be data-oriented

ICHL | International Conference on Historical Linguistics (2022)

Conference happens: Summer, odd-numbered years (2021 postponed to 2022)
Abstracts due: Fall

UCLA Indo-European Conference (info) (2021) (2022)

Conference happens: Fall (November)
Abstracts due: Summer
Comments: Student papers encouraged; prize for best student paper

Language acquisition

BUCLD | Boston U. Conference on Language Development (info) (2022) (+)

Conference happens: Fall (November)
Abstracts due: Spring

CLS | Child Language Symposium (2019)

Conference happens: Summer
Abstracts due: Winter

GALA | Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition (2022)

Conference happens: Fall, odd-numbered years
Abstracts due: Spring

GALANA | Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition / North America (2021) (+)

Conference happens: Summer/fall, every two years
Abstracts due: Spring

IASCL | International Association for the Study of Child Language (Info) (2024) (2021) (+)

Conference happens: Summer, every 3 years
Abstracts due: Fall

ICPC | International Child Phonology Conference (2022)

Conference happens: Spring/Summer
Abstracts due: Fall/Winter

Morphology

AIMM | American International Morphology Meeting (2021)

Conference happens: Summer
Abstracts due: Spring

IMM | International Morphology Meeting (2022)

Conference happens: Spring/Summer, every two years
Abstracts due: Summer/Fall

Phonetics/phonology

AMP | Annual Meeting on Phonology (2022) (2021) (+)

Conference happens: Fall (September/October)
Abstracts due: Spring

ASA | Acoustical Society of America (info) (2022) (+)

Conference happens: Winter and summer
Abstracts due: Summer and winter–Due July 25 2022
Comments: High acceptance rate (for posters); poster abstracts are published in JASA

ETAP | Experimental and Theoretical Approaches to Prosody (2018)

Conference happens: Spring (every two years?)
Abstracts due: Fall

ICPhS | International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (Info) (2023) (2019)

- Conference happens: Summer, every four years

Abstracts due: Winter/Spring–Due December 1 2022

LabPhon | Conference on Laboratory Phonology (2022)

Conference happens: Spring, even-numbered years
Abstracts due: Fall/Winter

MFM | Manchester Phonology Meeting (info) (2022) (+)

Conference happens: Spring (May)
Abstracts due: Winter

NAPhC | North American Phonology Conference (2016) (+)

Conference happens: Spring (May), every two years
Abstracts due: Winter

OCP | Old World Conference in Phonology (2023) (+)

Conference happens: Winter (January/February)
Abstracts due: Fall–Due September 15 2022

Psycholinguistics

HSP | Conference on Human Sentence Processing (2022) (2021)

Conference happens: Spring (March)
Abstracts due: Fall/Winter

Second language acquisition and pedagogy

GASLA | Generative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition (2022)

Conference happens: Spring
Abstracts due: Fall

SLA Graduate Student Symposium (Info) (2022)

Conference happens: Spring (April)
Abstracts due: Winter

SLRF | Second Language Research Forum (2020) (+)

Conference happens: Fall
Abstracts due: Spring

TALGS | TESOL/Applied Linguistics Graduate Students Conference (info) (2022)

Conference happens: Spring (February)
Abstracts due: Fall

Semantics

SALT | Semantics and Linguistic Theory (info) (2022)

Conference happens: Spring
Abstracts due: Fall/Winter

SULA | Semantics of Underrepresented Languages of the Americas (2021)

Conference happens: Winter/Spring, every two years
Abstracts due: Fall/Winter

Sociolinguistics and Pidgin/Creole Linguistics

NWAV | New Ways of Analyzing Variation (2022) (+)

Conference happens: Fall
Abstracts due: Spring

SALSA | Symposium About Language and Society–Austin (info)

Conference happens: Spring
Abstracts due: Winter

SPCL | Society for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics (info) (2022)

Conference happens: Winter (with LSA), summer
Abstracts due: Summer, winter

Conferences on particular languages or language groups

This is a sampling. Be on the lookout for other conferences dedicated to the language(s) you work on.

General

Kentucky Foreign Language Conference (info) (2023) (+)—Due November 1 2022

African and Afroasiatic languages

ACAL | Annual Conference on African Linguistics (2022) (+)
NACAL | N Atlantic Conference on Afroasiatic Linguistics (2019)

Arabic

ASAL | Annual Symposium on Arabic Linguistics (info) (2023)–Due November 1 2022

Asian and Pacific languages

AFLA | Austronesian Formal Linguistics Association (2022)
FAJL | Formal Approaches to Japanese Linguistics (2016)
(F)ASAL | (Formal) Approaches to South Asian Languages (2022)
ICKL | International Circle of Korean Linguistics (2021)
J/K | Japanese/Korean Linguistics (2023)–Due September 16 2022
NACCL | North American Conf. on Chinese Linguistics (Info) (2022)
SEALS | Southeast Asian Linguistics Society (2022)
WAFL | Workshop on Altaic Formal Linguistics ((2022)

Celtic languages

Celtic Linguistics Conference (2018)
CSANA | Celtic Studies Association of North America (Info) (2022)

Germanic languages

CGSW | Comparative Germanic Syntax Workshop (Info)–Due July 18 2022
DGfS | German Linguistic Society (info) (2022)
GLAC | Germanic Linguistics Annual Conference (info) (2021) (2022)

Indigenous languages of the Americas

SAIL | Symposium on American Indian Languages (info) (2022)
SSILA| Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas (info) (2023)
SULA | Semantics of Under-Represented Languages in the Americas — see above under ‘Semantics’
WSCLA | Workshop on the Structure and Constituency of Languages of the Americas (2021)
WAIL | Workshop on American Indigenous Languages (info)

Romance languages

HLS | Hispanic Linguistics Symposium (2022)
Going Romance — Symposium on Romance Linguistics (info) (2022)–Due July 20 2022
LSRL | Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages (2022)
SIUS | Spanish in the United States (2019) (+)
SLINKI | Spanish Linguistics in North Carolina (info) (2021) (2022) (+)

Slavic languages

FASL | Formal Approaches to Slavic Linguistics (2022 )
SLS | Slavic Linguistics Society (info)

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