<div dir="ltr"><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);margin:0px;padding:0px;overflow:visible;clear:both;direction:ltr;font-family:"Segoe UI","Segoe UI Web",Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:12px"><p lang="EN-US" style="background-color:transparent;color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;font-kerning:none"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;line-height:18px;font-variant-ligatures:none"><span style="background-color:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px">The University of Massachusetts, Amherst will host the 31st Annual Meeting of the </span></span><a href="https://www.uwo.ca/linguistics//research/afla/index.html" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" style="margin:0px;padding:0px"><span lang="EN-US" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;line-height:18px;font-variant-ligatures:none"><span style="background-color:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px">Austronesian Formal Linguistics Association</span></span></a><span lang="EN-US" style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;line-height:18px;font-variant-ligatures:none"><span style="background-color:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px"> (AFLA) as well as a special session on “Prosodic and psycholinguistic connections in verb initial languages.” The conference will take place in person at UMass in Amherst, Massachusetts from June 12-June 14, 2024. Depending on presenter interest, we are also exploring hybrid options for presentation. </span></span><span style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:12pt;line-height:18px;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> </span></p></div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);margin:0px;padding:0px;overflow:visible;clear:both;direction:ltr;font-family:"Segoe UI","Segoe UI Web",Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:12px"><p lang="EN-US" style="background-color:transparent;color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;font-kerning:none"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;line-height:18px;font-variant-ligatures:none"><span style="background-color:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px">Since 1994, </span></span><a href="https://www.uwo.ca/linguistics//research/afla/index.html" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" style="margin:0px;padding:0px"><span lang="EN-US" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;line-height:18px;font-variant-ligatures:none"><span style="background-color:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px">AFLA</span></span></a><span lang="EN-US" style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;line-height:18px;font-variant-ligatures:none"><span style="background-color:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px"> has served internationally as the most prominent and influential venue for presentation and discussion of recent research on Austronesian languages. Research disseminated at AFLA spans all subfields of linguistics (syntax, semantics, phonology, morphology, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, language acquisition, historical linguistics, </span><span style="background-color:inherit;border-bottom:1px solid transparent;margin:0px;padding:0px;background-repeat:repeat-x;background-position:0% 100%;background-image:url("")">etc</span><span style="background-color:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px">). </span></span><span style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:12pt;line-height:18px;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> </span></p><p lang="EN-US" style="background-color:transparent;color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;font-kerning:none"><span style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:12pt;line-height:18px;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><br></span></p></div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);margin:0px;padding:0px;overflow:visible;clear:both;direction:ltr;font-family:"Segoe UI","Segoe UI Web",Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:12px"><p lang="EN-US" style="background-color:transparent;color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;font-kerning:none"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;line-height:18px;font-variant-ligatures:none"><span style="background-color:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px">The aim of the special session on connections between verb initial languages is to bring together researchers working on prosody and psycholinguistics in Austronesian as well as verb-initial languages in other language families, creating a space for scholars who do not normally collaborate to share ideas and perspectives. The special session aims to foster discussion of the commonalities in the comprehension and production of verb-initial languages and the prosody of verb-initial languages. It also aims to contribute to informing existing theories of sentence processing and prosody, which have been developed primarily based on verb-medial and verb-final languages thus far. </span></span><span style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:12pt;line-height:18px;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> </span></p><p lang="EN-US" style="background-color:transparent;color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;font-kerning:none"><span style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:12pt;line-height:18px;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><br></span></p></div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);margin:0px;padding:0px;overflow:visible;clear:both;direction:ltr;font-family:"Segoe UI","Segoe UI Web",Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:12px"><p lang="EN-US" style="background-color:transparent;color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;font-kerning:none"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;line-height:18px;font-variant-ligatures:none"><span style="background-color:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px">In addition, there will be a pre-conference workshop on June 11, 2024 on a computational, data-driven approach to working with prosodic data. The workshop is intended to offer methodology </span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;line-height:18px;font-variant-ligatures:none"><span style="background-color:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px">for initial exploratory work in languages with limited or no prosodic descriptions for fieldworkers from a variety of backgrounds, including those without training in prosody. </span></span><span style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:12pt;line-height:18px;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> </span></p></div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);margin:0px;padding:0px;overflow:visible;clear:both;direction:ltr;font-family:"Segoe UI","Segoe UI Web",Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:12px"><p lang="EN-US" style="background-color:transparent;color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;font-kerning:none"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;line-height:18px;font-variant-ligatures:none"><span style="background-color:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px">We invite abstracts for 20 minute talks and posters on work in all areas of Austronesian linguistics, as well as abstracts on work on prosody and experimental linguistics in verb initial languages from any language family. </span></span><span style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:12pt;line-height:18px;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> </span></p></div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);margin:0px;padding:0px;overflow:visible;clear:both;direction:ltr;font-family:"Segoe UI","Segoe UI Web",Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:12px"><p lang="EN-US" style="background-color:transparent;color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;font-kerning:none"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;line-height:17px;font-variant-ligatures:none"><span style="background-color:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px"></span></span><span style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:11pt;line-height:17px;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"> </span></p></div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);margin:0px;padding:0px;overflow:visible;clear:both;direction:ltr;font-family:"Segoe UI","Segoe UI Web",Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:12px"><p lang="EN-US" style="background-color:transparent;color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;font-kerning:none"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-weight:bold;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;line-height:18px;font-variant-ligatures:none"><span style="background-color:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px">Abstract guidelines</span></span><span style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:12pt;line-height:18px;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> </span></p></div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);margin:0px;padding:0px;overflow:visible;clear:both;direction:ltr;font-family:"Segoe UI","Segoe UI Web",Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:12px"><p lang="EN-US" style="background-color:transparent;color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;font-kerning:none"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:12pt;font-family:Times,"Times New Roman",serif;line-height:18px;font-variant-ligatures:none"><span style="background-color:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px">Submission portal: </span></span><a href="https://app.oxfordabstracts.com/stages/6825/submitter" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" style="margin:0px;padding:0px"><span lang="EN-US" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:12pt;font-family:Times,"Times New Roman",serif;line-height:18px;font-variant-ligatures:none"><span style="background-color:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px">https://app.oxfordabstracts.com/stages/6825/submitter</span></span></a><span style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;line-height:17px;font-variant-ligatures:none"></span><span style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:11pt;line-height:17px;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"> </span></p></div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);margin:0px;padding:0px;overflow:visible;clear:both;direction:ltr;font-family:"Segoe UI","Segoe UI Web",Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:12px"><p lang="EN-US" style="background-color:transparent;color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;font-kerning:none"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-weight:bold;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;line-height:18px;font-variant-ligatures:none"><span style="background-color:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px">Abstract deadline: January 20, 2024</span></span><span style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:12pt;line-height:18px;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> </span></p></div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);margin:0px;padding:0px;overflow:visible;clear:both;direction:ltr;font-family:"Segoe UI","Segoe UI Web",Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:12px"><p lang="EN-US" style="background-color:transparent;color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;font-kerning:none"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:12pt;font-family:Times,"Times New Roman",serif;line-height:18px;font-variant-ligatures:none"><span style="background-color:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px">- Abstracts (including references and figures) should not exceed 2 single-spaced pages.</span></span><span style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:12pt;line-height:18px;font-family:WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService,Times,"Times New Roman",serif"><span style="margin:0px;padding:0px"> </span><br style="margin:0px;padding:0px"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:12pt;font-family:Times,"Times New Roman",serif;line-height:18px;font-variant-ligatures:none"><span style="background-color:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px">- Submissions must be on A4 size paper with 2 cm margins, and minimum 11pt font.</span></span><span style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:12pt;line-height:18px;font-family:WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService,Times,"Times New Roman",serif"><span style="margin:0px;padding:0px"> </span><br style="margin:0px;padding:0px"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:12pt;font-family:Times,"Times New Roman",serif;line-height:18px;font-variant-ligatures:none"><span style="background-color:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px">- All abstracts should be anonymous.</span></span><span style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:12pt;line-height:18px;font-family:WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService,Times,"Times New Roman",serif"><span style="margin:0px;padding:0px"> </span><br style="margin:0px;padding:0px"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:12pt;font-family:Times,"Times New Roman",serif;line-height:18px;font-variant-ligatures:none"><span style="background-color:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px">- Maximum 2 single-authored submissions per author (no limit for co-authored abstracts)</span></span><span style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:12pt;line-height:18px;font-family:WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService,Times,"Times New Roman",serif"><span style="margin:0px;padding:0px"> </span><br style="margin:0px;padding:0px"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:12pt;font-family:Times,"Times New Roman",serif;line-height:18px;font-variant-ligatures:none"><span style="background-color:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px">- Abstracts must be submitted as a single pdf document through the submission portal</span></span><span style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:12pt;line-height:18px;font-family:Times,"Times New Roman",serif"> </span></p></div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);margin:0px;padding:0px;overflow:visible;clear:both;direction:ltr;font-family:"Segoe UI","Segoe UI Web",Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:12px"><p lang="EN-US" style="background-color:transparent;color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;font-kerning:none"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-weight:bold;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;line-height:18px;font-variant-ligatures:none"><span style="background-color:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px"></span></span><span style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:12pt;line-height:18px;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> </span></p></div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);margin:0px;padding:0px;overflow:visible;clear:both;direction:ltr;font-family:"Segoe UI","Segoe UI Web",Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:12px"><p lang="EN-US" style="background-color:transparent;color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;font-kerning:none"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-weight:bold;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;line-height:18px;font-variant-ligatures:none"><span style="background-color:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px">Note:</span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;line-height:18px;font-variant-ligatures:none"><span style="background-color:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px"> We will give preference to new work, but given the unusually short time frame between the previous AFLA and AFLA 31, we encourage work that has already been presented as long as there is some new development.</span></span><span style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:12pt;line-height:18px;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> </span></p></div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);margin:0px;padding:0px;overflow:visible;clear:both;direction:ltr;font-family:"Segoe UI","Segoe UI Web",Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:12px"><p lang="EN-US" style="background-color:transparent;color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;font-kerning:none"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;line-height:17px;font-variant-ligatures:none"><span style="background-color:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px"></span></span><span style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:11pt;line-height:17px;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"> </span></p></div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);margin:0px;padding:0px;overflow:visible;clear:both;direction:ltr;font-family:"Segoe UI","Segoe UI Web",Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:12px"><p lang="EN-US" style="background-color:transparent;color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;font-kerning:none"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;line-height:18px;font-variant-ligatures:none"><span style="background-color:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px">We especially encourage submissions from junior scholars and students. </span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;line-height:18px;font-variant-ligatures:none"><span style="background-color:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px">To ensure the participation of junior scholars, we will provide a limited number of travel stipends for students whose abstracts are accepted for a poster or presentation.</span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;line-height:18px;font-variant-ligatures:none"><span style="background-color:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px"> </span></span><span style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:12pt;line-height:18px;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> </span></p></div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);margin:0px;padding:0px;overflow:visible;clear:both;direction:ltr;font-family:"Segoe UI","Segoe UI Web",Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:12px"><p lang="EN-US" style="background-color:transparent;color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;font-kerning:none"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;line-height:17px;font-variant-ligatures:none"><span style="background-color:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px"></span></span><span style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:11pt;line-height:17px;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"> </span></p></div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);margin:0px;padding:0px;overflow:visible;clear:both;direction:ltr;font-family:"Segoe UI","Segoe UI Web",Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:12px"><p lang="EN-US" style="background-color:transparent;color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;font-kerning:none"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;line-height:18px;font-variant-ligatures:none"><span style="background-color:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px">Please visit </span></span><a href="https://blogs.umass.edu/afla31/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" style="margin:0px;padding:0px"><span lang="EN-US" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;line-height:18px;font-variant-ligatures:none"><span style="background-color:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px">https://blogs.umass.edu/afla31</span></span></a><span lang="EN-US" style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;line-height:18px;font-variant-ligatures:none"><span style="background-color:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px">/</span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;line-height:18px;font-variant-ligatures:none"><span style="background-color:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px"> for more details, and email </span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;line-height:18px;font-variant-ligatures:none"><span style="background-color:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px"><a href="mailto:afla31@umass.edu" target="_blank">afla31@umass.edu</a></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;line-height:18px;font-variant-ligatures:none"><span style="background-color:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px"> with questions. If you'd like to subscribe to our mailing list, visit </span></span><a href="https://groups.io/g/afla/join" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" style="margin:0px;padding:0px"><span lang="EN-US" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;line-height:18px;font-variant-ligatures:none"><span style="background-color:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px">https://groups.io/g/afla/join</span></span></a><span lang="EN-US" style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;line-height:18px;font-variant-ligatures:none"><span style="background-color:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px"> and enter your email address.</span></span><span style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:12pt;line-height:18px;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> </span></p><p lang="EN-US" style="background-color:transparent;color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;font-kerning:none"><span style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:12pt;line-height:18px;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><br></span></p><p lang="EN-US" style="background-color:transparent;color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;font-kerning:none"><span style="color:windowtext;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:12pt;line-height:18px;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Conference organizers: Alessa Farinella, Jed Sam Pizarro-Guevara, Kristine Yu</span></p></div><font color="#888888" style="--darkreader-inline-color: #9d9488;"><div><br style="color:rgb(157,148,136)"></div></font><div><br></div><span class="gmail_signature_prefix">-- </span><br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><font size="2"><span style="font-family:"times new roman",serif">Kristine Yu (pronouns: she/her/hers)</span></font></div><div><font size="2"><span style="font-family:"times new roman",serif">Associate Professor<br></span></font></div><div><font size="2"><span style="font-family:"times new roman",serif">UMass Amherst, Department of Linguistics<br>Integrative Learning Center<br>650 North Pleasant Street<br>Amherst, MA  01003</span></font></div><div><font size="2"><span style="font-family:"times new roman",serif"><br></span></font></div></div><div dir="ltr">Proud member of the Massachusetts Society of Professors (MSP/MTA/NEA), the union representing faculty and librarians at UMass Amherst, and supporting public education and labor movements everywhere: <a href="http://umassmsp.org" target="_blank">umassmsp.org</a></div></div></div></div></div>