Matt Benton discusses his poster presentation at a conference in Australia

Department of Linguistics & TESOL | The University of Texas at Arlington

LINGUA:

UTASCILT 12 (2004)

LINGUA logo on a blue field

Dates & Location

UTASCILT 12 is November 4-5, 2004, at UT Arlington.

Keynote Speaker

Dr. Michael C. Cahill (http://www.sil.org/sil/roster/cahill_michael.htm)

Mike graduated from Iowa State University with a B.S. in biochemistry in 1977, and taught high school chemistry, physics and math for 5 years in Iowa. In the midst of that, he heard of SIL and took his first linguistics training at SIL-UND in 1980. Mike arrived in Ghana in 1983, all set to be a linguist and Bible translator, but was initially assigned as business manager. The advantage of this unexpected turn of events was that he got to know Virginia (Ginia), an itinerant teacher of the translators' children. They got engaged and returned to the USA for the wedding, linguistic training for Ginia, and an M.A. in linguistics for Mike from UTA, which he received in 1985.

Back in Ghana, the Cahills started living with the Koma people in the village of Yikpabongo, learning and analyzing the Konni language and culture. They developed an orthography for this previously-unwritten language, and started producing literacy books and trial Scripture portions.

Due to family concerns, they returned to the USA, and Mike got his Ph.D. from Ohio State University in 1999 with a dissertation titled Aspects of Morphology and Phonology in Konni, still the only case of analyzing the phonology of an entire language with Optimality Theory.

Since then, he has served in Dallas as SIL's International Linguistics Coordinator, being an information flow hub, promoting good linguistics in SIL, and still having fun investigating tone systems and labialvelar stops, not only in Africa, but also in Papua New Guinea. He's also interested in endangered language issues and in 2003 was the Chair of the LSA Committee on Endangered Languages and their Preservation.

Besides his beautiful wife, Mike has three perfect children: Deborah, Laura, and Stephen.

Dr. Cahill's keynote title is "The glorious world of labialvelars." (Download abstract as PDF.)

Welcome Party

When: Thursday, Nov. 4, 5:15 pm
Where: University Center, Rio Grande B
Why: To eat pizza, relax, and talk to the presenters, attendees, and judges in an informal environment.
How much: $5 for non-presenters, free for presenters (included in registration fees)

Conference Schedule

Take a look at the schedule for UTASCILT 12 (2004).

Yumi Nakamura Prize in Linguistics

The Yumi Nakamura Prize in Linguistics has been established to honor the memory of Ms. Yumi Nakamura, a Linguistics student who died at UT Arlington in January 2000. Her family and the Program in Linguistics have contributed funds to be awarded to the best student papers at the UTA Student Conference in Linguistics. A maximum of 3 prizes will be awarded in amounts up to $400 USD.

All students presenting papers are eligible to be included in the competition for the prize. The prize will be awarded at the Friday evening session.

Read more about the Yumi Nakamura Memorial Endowment at the department's Giving Opportunities page.

Purpose

The University of Texas at Arlington Student Conference in Linguistics & TESOL is a student-led conference specifically designed to give graduate students a chance to present their original research. This is a great opportunity to join students from across America and around the world to present research on language.