The 41st West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics (WCCFL 41) will take place on May 5-7, 2023 at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Website: https://babel.ucsc.edu/wccfl41/

In person core: At this time, all talks in both main and special sessions are planned for in person presentation: no virtual talks will be accommodated.In person and virtual poster sessions

Poster sessions may be in person or virtual, depending on demand. When submitting their abstract, authors will be asked to select whether they would like to be considered for either: (i) virtual poster presentation, or (ii) in person talk and/or poster.

Invited speakers:

• Luke Adamson, Rutgers University
• Dorothy Ahn, Rutgers University
• Eva Zimmerman, University of Leipzig

Main Session:

Abstracts are invited for 20-minute talks and posters on any theoretical or formal aspect of natural language, including but not limited to phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and their interfaces.

Special Session: Deixis and Anaphora

Abstracts are invited for 20-minute talks and posters on deixis and anaphora, across nominal and verbal domains. What are the ways in which natural language can make reference to and depend on the physical and linguistic context? How are these functions expressed across grammatical categories like determiners, pronouns, adjectives, and tense? Is the representation of deixis and anaphora formally distinguished by the grammar? Of special interest are projects which provide insight to the domain of deixis holistically, with reference to one or more of these phenomena.

Special Session: Beyond Phi-Features

Abstracts are invited for 20-minute talks and posters on phi-features and featural representations, more generally. What semantic domains are represented featurally in human language (including, but not limited to, person, number, and gender)? How are these features represented in the syntax and morphology? How do syntactic and morphological operations make reference to these features? How are these features interpreted, semantically or pragmatically? Projects which investigate these questions in new domains (such as animacy or definiteness) are of particular interest.

Abstract Submission

Abstract submission deadline
11:59pm PST on Friday, January 2, 2023

Abstract notification time (estimated)
Late February, 2023

Instructions for abstract submission:

• Abstracts must be in PDF format.
• Abstracts must not exceed two pages of letter-sized or A4 paper, including data. References can be included on an additional page.
• Abstracts should have 1″ margins on all sides, set in a font no smaller than 11 points.
• Abstracts should have a clear title and should not identify the author(s).
• Submissions are limited to one individual and one joint abstract per author, or two joint abstracts per author.
• The abstract must be submitted electronically using Oxford Abstracts at: https://app.oxfordabstracts.com/stages/4891/submitter.
• All submissions must indicate whether the abstract is to be considered for presentation in the main session and/or in a special session, as well as whether it is to be considered for (i) virtual poster presentation, or (ii) an in person talk, poster, or both.

Note
WCCFL 41 will give preference to new work. For this reason, during the abstract submission process, authors will be asked to inform the Organizing Committee whether their work is under review for publication or has been submitted or accepted for presentation at a major conference. Authors should also notify the Organizing Committee promptly of any change in status of their submissions. (Note that this information will not be shared with reviewers.)