November 12 - 13, 2004

Conference Location:
Friday: Silverstein Lounge/Jurow Lecture Hall, Silver Center;
Saturday: Room 714, Silver Center

Recent advances in the study of the impact of speaker's age on language raise new questions. It's time to take stock.

• How does a speaker's age affect her grammar?
• Is adolescents' language really that different from the language of other people?
• How important is age grading in sociolinguistic explanation?
• When do speakers stop acquiring their vernacular?
• What is the impact of aging on a speaker's grammar?

These are some of the kinds of questions this conference will address. Ten speakers have been invited whose work covers the youngest speakers, the oldest speakers, and cohorts in between.

Speakers:

• Mary Bucholtz, UCSB
• Cece Cutler, Stony Brook
• Sylvie Dubois, LSU
• Lisa Green, UT Austin
• Gregory Guy, NYU
• Heidi Hamilton, Georgetown
• Julie Roberts, Vermont
• Gillian Sankoff, Penn
• Bambi Schieffelin, NYU
• John Victor Singler, NYU

Registration: Students $15, Faculty $30

The dinner will be held at the NYU Torch Club. The cost for dinner is $25. There will be a cash bar.

For more information, contact Maryam Bakht-Rofheart at maryam@nyu.edu.

Sponsored by NYU's Department of Linguistics with support from the Africana Studies Center and the Working Group in Urban Sociolinguistics.

Tentative Schedule (Updated November 3, 2004)

Friday

Location: Silverstein Lounge/ Jurow Lecture Hall, Silver Center

8:30-9:00	Breakfast/Registration
9:00-10:00	Greg Guy New York University	Language and time: Adaptation, Development, and Diachrony
10:00-10:15	Break
10:15-11:15	Bambi Schieffelin New York University	Language and Place in Children's Worlds
11:15-11:30	Break
11:30-12:30	Lisa Green University of Texas, Austin	Child African American English and Elaboration in Elicitation Tasks
12:30-2:15	Lunch
2:15-3:15	Julie Roberts University of Vermont	Changing speakers/changing language:  The interface of language variation and language acquisition
3:15-3:30	Break
3:30-4:30	John V. Singler New York University	Age Grading's Underpinnings
4:30-5:00	Group discussion with Friday’s speakers
6:00	Dinner	The dinner will be held at the NYU Torch Club. The cost for dinner is $25. There will be a cash bar.

Saturday

Location: Room 714, Silver Center

8:30-9:00	Breakfast/Registration
9:00-10:00	Mary Bucholtz UC Santa Barbara	From Stance to Style: Innovative Quotative Markers and Youth Identities in Discourse
10:00-10:15	Break
10:15-11:15	Cece Cutler SUNY Stony Brook	Tweenies, Teens and Middlescents: how does language map onto shifting conceptions of adolescence?
11:15-11:30	Break
11:30-12:30	Sylvie Dubois Louisiana State University	On-going change in CVE and CAAVE: Identifying the Sociohistorical Generational Causes
12:30-2:15	Lunch
2:15-3:15	Gillian Sankoff University of Pennsylvania	Language change and change across the lifespan: rethinking age grading in the light of real-time trend and panel data
3:15-3:30	Break
3:30-4:30	Heidi Hamilton Georgetown University	The Prism, the Soliloquy, the Couch, and the Dance: Thoughts on the Evolving Study of Language and Alzheimer's Disease
4:30-5:00	Group discussion with Saturday's speakers
5:00	End of conference