Variation and Language Processing 2 Conference (VALP2)

16-18 January 2013, Christchurch, New Zealand

Traditionally, linguistic variation has been the concern of (variationist) sociolinguistics and work in language processing has fallen under the domain of psycholinguistics and cognitive science. Recently, however, this apparent division has been questioned because work in sociolinguistics now encompasses experimental techniques and work in psycholinguistics has begun to engage with variable naturalistic data. As the interests of these fields converge, new questions about the relationship between linguistic variation and social cognition have been generated e.g. How is linguistic variation stored in cognition? How is the ‘linguistic’ and the ‘extra-linguistic’ linked? How do we best model these connections?

Questions like these framed the first Variation and Language Processing (VALP) conference, held at the University of Chester (UK) in 2011, and we are pleased to announce the continuation of the discussion at VALP2, hosted by the New Zealand Institute of Language, Brain and Behaviour (NZILBB) and the Linguistics Department at the University of Canterbury (New Zealand).

The New Zealand Institute of Language, Brain and Behaviour is a global hub for multi-disciplinary language-based research with five cross-cutting themes: language variation and change, social cognition, bilingualism, ageing and language acquisition. The VALP conference, therefore, particularly welcomes papers and posters on topics relating to these themes.

Plenary speakers
We are delighted to announce that the invited plenary speakers at VALP2 are

Professor Cathi Best, Professor Paul Foulkes and Associate Professor Paul Warren

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