Thematic panel on sociolinguistic issues in the use of language analysis to determine national origin

Sociolinguistics Symposium 17 (SS17) (www.meertens.knaw.nl/ss17)
Amsterdam, April 3 – April 5, 2008

Language analysis is currently used by governments of various countries all over the world as a tool to determine the origin of asylum seekers. Following from critical comments and observations by many professional linguists (e.g. Eades et al. 2003, Arends 2003) on the use of language analysis, the Guidelines for the Use of Language Analysis in Relation to Questions of National Origin in Refugee Cases were published in 2004 by an international group of linguists (see www.iafl.org, the home page of the International Association for Forensic Linguistics). These guidelines provide a useful framework for research in this relatively new field, and have inspired various linguists to contribute to our understanding of the (im)possibilities of language analysis as a tool to determine the origin of asylum seekers (e.g. Singler 2006, De Graaf & Van den Hazelkamp 2006, Ten Thije to appear). Many issues in this specific field of research are related to sociolinguistic topics such as multilingualism, code-switching, language mixing, language contact, speech accommodation, language and identity, the observer’s paradox, the role of the interpreter, etc.

In April 2008, the 17th edition of the Sociolinguistics Symposium will be held in Amsterdam. De Taalstudio is planning to organize a thematic panel on sociolinguistic issues in language analysis in refugee cases. During this session, several independent papers around this theme are presented and discussed. Authors are expected to give a 20 minute presentation of their paper. To guarantee a focused and in-depth discussion, papers will be circulated in advance to all panel members.

We hereby invite the submission of proposals for a paper on any sociolinguistic issue related to language analysis as it is used in the determination of origin in asylum cases.

If you are interested in participating, please send an abstract (max. 300 words) of your paper to adegraaf@taalstudio.nl by August 1st. We will put together a panel proposal to the SS17 organizing committee with a selection of the abstracts we receive. By the beginning of October, we will inform all submitters as to whether the panel proposal was accepted and which papers are included. Full papers should be submitted by February 1st 2008. 

In your abstract, please include the following information:
• Title of the presentation
• Name(s) of the presenter(s)
• Affiliation of the presenter(s)
• Both e-mail and postal addresses

De Taalstudio
Anna de Graaf
Leonie IJzereef
Maaike Verrips

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