Linguists from Around the World Discuss Current Academic Issues at First Eurasian Congress
HSE University partnered with the First Eurasian Congress of Linguists dedicated to the 300th anniversary of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS). The congress served as a platform for discussing relevant issues in linguistics related to all language groups of Eurasia and other regions worldwide. Approximately 200 researchers from 46 foreign countries and 300 Russian linguists from 50 regions of Russia participated in the event.
The largest delegations came from India, China, and the United States—countries with a strong tradition of linguistic research conducted by top-tier scholars.
The congress's largest section, ‘Sociolinguistics,’ was organised by Professor Mira Bergelson of the HSE Faculty of Humanities together with Professor Lenore Grenoble from the University of Chicago (USA). Under their leadership, three sessions were held within this section.
Mira Bergelson
One of the congress's main goals was to familiarise young researchers with the latest advancements in the study of language in its full diversity, noted Mira Bergelson. ‘I am delighted that our university, HSE, partnered with the congress, allowing us to organise various events targeting different audiences, all of which were engaging and well-attended. For instance, the pre-conference lectures attracted many students who kept the speakers engaged with questions. As a result, we agreed with Dr Camiel Hamans to deliver a series of lectures for our master’s programme, either remotely or in person, inspired by this discussion,’ she said.
According to Mira Bergelson, several new projects are also being planned in collaboration with colleagues from India and China as part of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies on Sociocultural Diversity and Language Policy, which is soon to be created at the HSE Faculty of Humanities.
Anastasia Grigoryeva
Mira Bergelson gave a presentation titled ‘Universal and Specific Features in Linguistic Situations: Telling Two Things Apart.’ Meanwhile, Anastasia Grigoryeva, Research Assistant at the HSE Faculty of Humanities, presented a report titled ‘Regional Variety of English in Alaska’ during the roundtable ‘Regional and Contact-Related Variability of Major Languages.’ The latter report was developed in collaboration with Mira Bergelson. ‘I greatly enjoyed the presentations of more experienced colleagues, participating in discussions, and the warm networking atmosphere. The congress was a truly unique platform for exchanging invaluable experiences and significant achievements while fostering pleasant academic connections,’ Anastasia Grigoryeva noted.
The plenary lecture ‘Old Russian Birchbark Documents as a Linguistic Source: Current State of the Art and Perspectives’ was delivered by Alexey Gippius, a member of the Russian Academy of Science and a professor at the HSE Faculty of Humanities.
Several off-site congress events were held in the HSE building complex on Staraya Basmannaya Ulitsa. For example, Dutch linguist Camiel Hamans (Comité International Permanent des Linguistes, CIPL) presented on ‘The Tension Between Standardisation and Rights for Minority Languages’ during a seminar of the master’s programme ‘Language Policy in the Context of Ethnocultural Diversity.’ As part of the Nostratic Seminar at the HSE Institute for Oriental and Classical Studies, HSE Associate Professor George Starostin hosted Australian linguist Paul Sidwell (University of Sydney) for his talk on ‘Modelling the Prehistory and Evolution of a Language Family: Lessons from Austroasiatic.’
The public discussion ‘Language and Artificial Intelligence’ featured Natalia Loukachevitch, professor at Lomonosov Moscow State University, and Valeriy Solovyov, professor at Kazan Federal University. The event focused on large language models and advancements in automated natural language analysis.
Linguists from Moscow State University led the roundtable ‘Management of Message Comprehension: Particles, Conjunctions, Parenthetic Words, Interjections.’
Denis Zubalov, Assistant Professor at the HSE Faculty of Humanities, organised and moderated the roundtable ‘Multilingualism in the City: Language Policy and Diversity.’ ‘The interview-format discussion with Prof. Yaron Matras about his book Speech and the City: Multilingualism, Decoloniality, and the Civic University was particularly engaging and insightful. This discussion set the tone for the event and laid the groundwork for subsequent presentations. The participants emphasised the need for continued research in this area and the importance of an interdisciplinary approach,’ Denis Zubalov shared.
The First Eurasian Congress of Linguists facilitated knowledge exchange among scholars from different countries, highlighting the importance of international collaboration for scientific development and progress in linguistics.
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