Corpora: Modality in Contemporary English: conference announcement and call for papers

[Roberta Facchinetti]

With apologies for any multiple postings:

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            CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT AND
                            CALL FOR PAPERS
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             "Modality in Contemporary English"
        International Conference, 6-8 September 2001,
                    University of Verona, Italy
http://www.univr.it/cla/conferences/modality/modality_index.htm

AIM
We are pleased to announce the International Conference on "Modality in
Contemporary English" to be held in Verona, Italy, on 6-8 September 2001.
The conference aims at fostering interaction between scholars from different
theoretical backgrounds but with a common interest in English modality, with
specific reference to the Present-day, hence promoting discussions,
exchanging ideas and reporting recent progress on a variety of issues
related to this field.


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CALL FOR PAPERS
Paper proposals are welcomed on all aspects of verbal and non-verbal
modality in Present-day English. We particularly solicit work describing
research in the following fields:
- syntax and semantics of modal elements
- modality and phonetics / prosody
- modality and sociolinguistics
- modality and pragmatics
- modality and language teaching
Authors should submit an anonymous abstract of at most 3   A4 pages,
including
figures/tables and references, together with a separate page specifying the
author's names, affiliation, surface mail address, and e-mail address.

We strongly encourage electronic submission (.doc, .txt, .rtf, .pdf),
preferably as an attachment. Please, send abstracts to:
Prof. Roberta Facchinetti (faro at chiostro.univr.it). If sent by surface mail,
please include disk.
Deadline for abstracts submission: 28th February 2001
Notification of acceptance: 30th March, 2001


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PRELIMINARY REGISTRATION
Those who wish to attend the conference, whether presenting a paper or not,
should register by 15th December 2000. To register, please visit:
http://www.univr.it/cla/conferences/modality/reg.html


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WORKSHOP: "Modal expressions in ICE-GB: issues of retrieval"
In conjunction with the conference, a workshop will be held by Bas Aarts
(Reader in Modern English Language, University College London) and Sean
Wallis (Research Fellow, University College London). The workshop will
introduce the ICE-GB corpus, discuss how to retrieve a variety of modality
features by means of the programme ICECUP, specifically developed for the
corpus, and finally provide a hands-on session allowing delegates to
experiment with the corpus and the software themselves.


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INVITED SPEAKERS
Keynote speaker: Frank PALMER (Professor Emeritus, former Professor of
Linguistic Science, University of Reading, England)

The following have also accepted to give a paper:
- Jennifer COATES (Professor of English Language and Linguistics, University
of Surrey Roehampton, England)
- Maurizio GOTTI (Professor of English Language and Linguistics, University
of Bergamo, Italy)
- Geoffrey LEECH (Professor in English Linguistics, University of
Lancaster, England)
- Maria LIMA (Professor of English Language and Linguistics, University of
Salerno, Italy)
- Stephen J. NAGLE (Professor of English, Director of International
Programmes,
Coastal Carolina University, U.S.A.)


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VENUE
The venue of the conference will be the University of Verona, located near
the historical centre of the town and within walking distance to most
hotels. The Language Centre and the Faculty of Arts have new, well-equipped,
airy classrooms for the conference. Internet access will be provided for all
the delegates throughout the conference.


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SOCIAL PROGRAMME
There will be a full social programme, including university reception, a
tour of Verona, conference dinner, and a whole day excursion to Venice
(post-conference tour).

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ORGANIZERS AND CONTACT INFORMATION
The conference is jointly organized by the Language Centre and the Faculty
of Arts of the University of Verona. The scientific and organizing committee
is:
- Prof. Roberta Facchinetti (faro at chiostro.univr.it), Faculty of Arts,
University of Verona
- Prof. Cesare Gagliardi (gagliard at chiostro.univr.it), Faculty of Languages,
Head of the Language Centre, University of Verona
- Dr Anna Zanfei (azanfei at chiostro.univr.it), Language Centre, University of
Verona


Enquiries about the conference should be directed to:
International Conference on "Modality in Contemporary English"
Organizing Committee
C/o Prof. Roberta Facchinetti
Faculty of Arts
University of Verona
Via S. Francesco, 22
37129 Verona
ITALY
Fax: +39 045 8028705
e-mail: faro at chiostro.univr.it


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IMPORTANT DATES
December 15th, 2000: early registration deadline
February 28th, 2001: abstract submission deadline
March 30th, 2001: notification of acceptance
September 6th - 8th, 2001: Conference