Date: 28-May-2015 – 30-May-2015

Location: Manchester, United Kingdom

Submission Deadline: Feb. 16, 2015.

Contact Person: Patrick Honeybone

Meeting Email: patrick.honeybone@ed.ac.uk

Web Site: http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/mfm/23mfm.html

Special session: ‘Syllables’, featuring:

– Marie-Helene Cote (University of Ottawa)

– Adamantios Gafos (University of Potsdam)

– Bridget Samuels (Pomona College)

– Peter Szigetvari (Eotvos Lorand University)

(taken from http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/mfm/23mfm.html)

Background

We are pleased to announce the plans for our Twenty-Third Manchester Phonology Meeting (23mfm). The mfm is the UK’s annual phonology conference, with an international set of organisers. It is held in late May every year in Manchester (central in the UK, and with excellent international transport connections). The meeting has become a key conference for phonologists from all over the world, where anyone who declares themselves to be interested in phonology can submit an abstract on anything phonological in any phonological framework. In an informal atmosphere, we discuss a broad range of topics, including the phonological description of languages, issues in phonological theory, aspects of phonological acquisition and implications of phonological change.

As in previous years, the conference venue will be the Hulme Hall lecture suite in Manchester, which is located just south of the city centre and is easily accessible by public transport or on foot. Last year, the conference fee (covering general conference costs, coffee and biscuits, midday and evening meals, but not accommodation) was GBP 140.00, with a reduction to GBP 75.00 for students and unwaged participants. We expect to charge similar but slightly higher fees this year.

If you would like to get a feeling for the conference series, you could take a look at the website for last year’s 22mfm, and at the mfm homepage, which includes lots of information about the mfm conference series.

Advice on how best to travel to Manchester and on where to stay will be posted on this website in due course.

Programme: http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/mfm/23mfm-prog.pdf

Special session
A special themed session entitled ‘Syllables’ is being organised for Friday 29th May by members of the organising committee and the advisory board. This will feature the invited speakers listed below. and will allow for open discussion when contributions from the audience will be very welcome.

Syllables
Syllables and syllable boundaries – what are they or what should we replace them with? We are hoping that our invited speakers will address questions like the following: Does phonology need syllables and/or syllabic constituents and boundaries? If so, do all languages have them? If we assume so, how are they interpreted or instantiated in representational terms? Do they exist in the lexicon? And are syllable boundaries crisp? If we assume not, what should we do with the kind of generalisations that have been talked about in syllabic terms? Furthermore, what are the implications of articulatory studies of gestural phasing for our understanding of syllables?

Invited speakers (in alphabetical order)

Marie-Helene Cote (Universite Laval)
Adamantios Gafos (University of Potsdam)
Bridget Samuels (Pomona College)
Peter Szigetvari (Eotvos Lorand University)