May 5, 2026 - May 8, 2026
https://www.unive.it/web/en/16556/home
The Department of Asian and North African Studies at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice is pleased to announce the fourth meeting of the Conference on the Endangered Languages of East Asia (CELEA). The aim of CELEA is to gather at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice scholars, researchers, and other academics who work on endangered, indigenous, or minority languages spoken in the territories of East Asia. With this conference, the University wants to broaden its perspective on the linguistic diversity of the East Asian countries whose main languages are being taught in its Department of Asian and North African Studies. Thus the University hopes to raise an interest towards the less-known languages of Asia and foster active investigation on them, while giving researchers from all over the world the opportunity to meet and share their knowledge.
The conference focuses primarily on the endangered, indigenous, and minority languages of Japan, China, Korea, the Russian Far East, Mongolia, Vietnam, Thailand and Taiwan so priority will be given to contributions that discuss languages spoken in these countries. However, contributions dealing with languages spoken elsewhere in Asia will also be more than welcomed. Please note that contributions addressing any aspect of the official or main languages spoken in these territories (e.g. Japanese, Chinese, Korean, etc.) fall out of the scope of the conference and will not be considered. We specifically encourage PhD students and young researchers to present their work at the conference.
As the general theme of this fourth meeting of CELEA we have chosen units and wholes, to explore the possible interpretations, applications, and attitudes towards the concepts of singularity and entirety within the different minority or minoritized languages of East Asia.
As usual, we invite contributions that address the Conference’s theme from the perspective of descriptive linguistics, sociolinguistics, and historical linguistics, and explore issues related to the following (other topics are also welcome):
- Formal expression(s) of ‘one’ and ‘all’, their semantic distinctions when employed as quantifiers and pragmatic uses when employed as markers of speaker’s evaluation.
- Synchronic uses of ‘one’ and ‘all’ with specific grammatical functions (e.g. as markers of TAME, (in)definiteness, number, …) or as items pertaining to distinct word classes (articles, pronouns, …).
- Non-prototypical singulative-collective or singular-plural number systems.
- Description of the numeric system (or of coexisting systems) in one or more languages.
- Contrasting linguistic attitudes of individuals and the community and their effects on language maintenance, wellbeing, and planning.
- Representation of the plurality within minority or minoritized languages and communities especially at an institutional level, nationally and internationally.
- Possibilities of using a multi-variety approach in language teaching and learning in the context of language revitalization (e.g. applicability of the polynomic approach).
- Diachrony of items expressing ‘one’ and ‘all’.
- Reversibility or circularity of language change and grammaticalization, especially with regard to cases in which these processes lead to a stage that is identical or similar to the one they started from, to prove that change is not always once and for all.
- Differences in speed and extension of change within a specific language category or paradigm, relatively to a single language, more language varieties within one family, or a Sprachbund.
Whatever the topic, we particularly favor contributions that take a typological stance.
Submission instructions:
Abstracts are invited for 20-minute oral presentations (plus 10-minute discussion) on any area of linguistics including (but not limited to) phonetics, phonology, morphosyntax, semantics, pragmatics, sociolinguistics, and historical linguistics. All abstracts submitted for oral presentations must comply with the overall topic of the conference, regardless of the area of linguistics the author decides to focus on.
Abstracts should be anonymous – they should not include the name(s) of the author(s) nor their affiliation. Please note that name(s) and/or affiliation should not appear in the name of the file you submit either.
Only one abstract per person (or one single-authored abstract plus one additional co-authored abstract) is allowed.
All abstracts should be submitted in English, which will also be the language of the conference. Abstracts should not exceed 500 words, excluding references but including examples, tables, and graphs. Abstracts exceeding the word count or containing the author’s name and/or affiliation will not be considered for paper or poster presentation at the conference.
Submissions open: Nov. 1, 2025 - Jan. 31, 2026
Abstract review period: Feb. 1, 2026 - Feb. 15, 2026
Contact Email: [email protected]