The Annual Meeting Handbook is now available online as a PDF!

 

The 85th Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America will take place January 6-9, 2011 at the:

Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh Downtown Hotel

600 Commonwealth Place

Pittsburgh, PA 15222

Plenary Speakers:

  • Barbara Johnstone (Carnegie Mellon University): "Speaking Pittsburghese: The social history of Pittsburgh speech"

  • Janet Pierrehumbert (Northwestern University): "Example-based learning and the dynamics of the lexicon" [Download Slides]

  • Joan Maling (Brandeis University, Emerita): "From Passive to Active: An On-Going Syntactic Change in Icelandic"

 

Quick Links

 

Official Sponsors

John Benjamins Publishing Company Brill

 

Presentation Slide Downloads

 

Preliminary Program

The 2011 Annual Meeting will begin on Thursday 6 January at 4:00 p.m. View the preliminary program online as a PDF.

Students should also check out the Especially for Students page which contains events, services, and information for student attendees.

Read a media advisory (PDF) for the Annual Meeting. Also, read short abstracts of the presentations that were designated newsworthy by reviewers.

 

Handbook

View the Annual Meeting Handbook as a PDF.

 

A Note on Resolutions

The procedure for proposing LSA Resolutions has been changed. Resolutions are no longer proposed at the Business Meeting in January; rather, any LSA member or committee may propose a resolution at any time. Read more information on proposing an LSA Resolution.

 

Local Information

For more information on Pittsburgh as a tourist destination, please see visitpittsburgh.com and an interactive map of Pittsburgh restaurants and attractions. For more information on Pittsburgh as a destination of linguistic interest, see http://english.cmu.edu/pittsburghspeech/.

More detailed information:

 

Hotel Accommodations

Hotel rooms at the Wyndham Grand have sold out. A block of rooms has been reserved at the nearby Renaissance Pittsburgh at the rate of $129/night single/double. To reserve one of these rooms by phone, please call 1-800-468-3571 (24 Hours) or 1-866-454-4400 (Monday-Friday between 8:00 AM and 6:00 PM US Eastern Time) and reference the Linguistic Society of America Annual Meeting, or reserve a room with one or two beds online. Rooms at the Renaissance Pittsburgh may be reserved, subject to availability, through January 2.

The Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh Downtown Hotel has reserved a block of rooms for those attending the 2011 Annual Meeting. Each guest room offers breathtaking views of the city or the famed Three Rivers. Rooms are beautifully appointed in vibrant colors with an ergonomically designed work area, dual-line speakerphones with voicemail and coffee maker with complimentary coffee and tea. Standard features also include an iron and ironing board, hairdryer, in-room movies, easy-to-set alarm clock radio with MP3 connectivity. In addition, the hotel offers a complimentary weekday USA Today, complimentary downtown shuttle and a 24-hour fully automated self-serve business center offer. Why attendees should book with the LSA Room Block for the 2011 Annual Meeting.

Hotel reservations at the LSA Annual Meeting rate will be available from through December 16, 2010.

The special LSA room rates for the 2011 Annual Meeting are:

Single/Double:
$99/night single/double
Executive Level:
$134/night single/double
Junior Suite:
$149/night single/double
Additional Guests:
$25/person/night

Executive Level rooms include access to a private elevator, concierge and Executive Lounge with complimentary buffet breakfast and evening hors d’oeuvres.

Hotel reservations may be made by telephone at 1-800-821-1888, extension 4007 or online at https://resweb.passkey.com/go/lsa2011. If reserving a room by telephone, mention the Linguistic Society of America meeting to get the conference rate.

Note that reservations made through the former Hilton Pittsburgh website will be fully honored under the present reservations system.

For questions about existing hotel reservations, please contact the Passkey staff at the Pittsburgh Convention and Visitors Bureau at 412-281-0482 x4007 (1-800-821-1888 x4007) or by email at [email protected] through December 20. After that date, please contact the hotel directly.

If you are looking for a roomate for the LSA Annual Meeting, please visit our room sharing group.

 

Registration

Everyone attending the meeting is expected to register. Compliance is important for keeping our fees affordable. Only those who register will be allowed to present papers, use the Job Placement Service, or attend presentations and other functions. Registrants should wear their meeting badges at all times when at LSA Annual Meeting functions.

Preregistration

Preregistration for the 2011 Annual Meeting will be available from September 1 through December 20, 2010.

Register online now for the 2011 Annual Meeting as an LSA Member, a Sister Society Member, or a nonmember. Attendees who are unable to register online may download a printable registration form (PDF).

Fees are:

Regular/Emeritus/Life Members
$140
Student Members
$60
Under/Unemployed Members
$70 (contact LSA Secretariat)
Nonmember - Regular
$240
Nonmember - Student
$105

(Note that the cost of registering as a nonmember is slightly more than the cost of purchasing an LSA membership and registering at LSA member rates. To join the LSA in order to receive member registration rates, click here.)

Preregistrants may claim their conference tote bags, badges, and handbooks at the registration desk beginning at 12:00 p.m. on 6 January. Registration will be open from 12:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. on 6 January, from 7:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. on 7 and 8 January, and from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on 9 January.

Onsite Registration

The onsite registration fees for the 2011 Annual Meeting are:

Regular/Emeritus/Life Members
$190
Student Members
$80
Under/Unemployed Members
$80
Nonmember - Regular
$290
Nonmember - Student
$125
Special 1-day Rate
$100

 

LSA Meeting Services

Child Care

Members who notify the Secretariat that they plan to bring children to the meeting will receive the names and e-mail addresses of other members who expect to bring their children to Pittsburgh, so that they may arrange for mutual babysitting services if convenient. In addition, members may arrange for babysitting services by contacting the Hilton's concierge directly.

Attendees who are presenting at the LSA meeting are eligible for a maximum $100 stipend to offset child care costs. Those wishing to avail themselves of this service must notify the Secretariat no later than 1 December, 2010.

Job Placement

A Job Placement Area will be available. The fee for employers wishing to list jobs and/or schedule interviews with job applicants is $125 per listing; there is no charge for job applicants to use this service. Job interviews arranged through the LSA's job placement service take place in regular hotel meeting rooms set up for this purpose. All interviewers and interviewees, like all meeting attendees, are required to register for the Meeting.

A more detailed description of the Job Placement Service and a form for employers wishing to schedule interviews is available here.

Sign Language Interpretation

Attendees at the Pittsburgh meeting who need ASL/English interpretation must notify the LSA Secretariat and register for the meeting by 19 November 2010. Presenters who plan to present in ASL must also notify the Secretariat by 19 November 2010 to ensure that interpretation is provided. All requests should be sent to David Robinson, Director of Membership and Meetings, with the words "2011 Meeting ASL Interpreting Request" in the subject line. Please include a list of LSA sessions and/or papers you expect to attend, including plenary addresses, the business meeting, and the Presidential Address (a preliminary meeting schedule will be online by late September 2010). All requests will be forwarded to the interpreter coordinator for the Pittsburgh meeting, who will identify qualified local interpreters, assist with scheduling, and handle day-to-day logistics concerning interpreting.

Support Sign Language Interpretation at the LSA

Sponsors

The LSA thanks its corporate sponsors for the 2011 Annual Meeting, John Benjamins Publishing Company and Brill. Please contact Alyson Reed, the LSA's Executive Director, if you are interested in becoming a corporate sponsor of this or any future Annual Meeting.

 

Awards

Two new awards have been instituted, beginning in 2010, that provide support for attendees at the LSA Annual Meeting.

Early Career Award

The Early Career Award provides up to $500 in travel reimbursement and complimentary registration for the next Annual Meeting to a new scholar who has made an outstanding contribution to the field of linguistics. Any member of the LSA who received the Ph.D. no more than seven years before being nominated is eligible to receive this award. For the 2011 Annual Meeting, a nominating letter of no more than three pages and an updated curriculum vitae for the nominee must arrive at the Secretariat by 15 September, 2010. The awardee will be announced by November 1.

Nominations may be emailed to [email protected] with the words "Early Career Award Nomination" in the subject line.

Student Abstract Award

The Student Abstract Award, provides a $500 stipend for the best abstract submitted by a student for a paper or poster presentation at the next Annual Meeting, and $300 stipends for the submitters of the abstracts rated second and third. All abstracts submitted for the annual meeting are rated, blindly, by external reviewers and the LSA Program Committee. Once abstracts have been accepted, the LSA Staff (who have access to information about abstract submitters) will determine which student abstracts were most highly rated. In case of a tie, the Awards Committee members will read the abstracts and select the winner and the two runners-up. The awardees will be publicly announced as soon as they have been selected, and will be recognized in the Handbook for the Annual Meeting. All students who submit abstracts for the Annual Meeting are considered for this award; no nominations are required.

 

Information for Exhibitors, Advertisers, and Sponsors

The LSA will contact potential exhibitors, advertisers, and sponsors in early July 2010.