“Get back to the communities and do the work.”
This was one of the important takeaways of the 24th Biennial Conference for the Society for Caribbean Linguistics (SCL) according to Dr Jo-Anne Ferreira, former SCL President.
The conference was held virtually from August 2-4, and commemorated SCL’s 50th anniversary.
“Linguists learn every day from our communities, but it is not always the case that the communities learn from linguists,” explains Dr Ferreira, who is also the former Head of Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics (DMLL) and a Senior Lecturer in Linguistics at UWI St Augustine.
“We’d like it to be more of a two-way street,” she says.
In keeping with the conference theme “New Frontiers in Caribbean Language Research”, participants discussed topics like Caribbean Creole languages, Caribbean sign languages, phonology and syntax, language attitudes, and proverbs, ranging across West Indian territories and communities.
Among the plenary presentations was “Linguistics and Social Justice — from Upside-down to Upside-up Schools” by Michel DeGraff, Professor of Linguistics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. DeGraff discussed the imperative of teaching children in their mother tongue.
Bettina Migge, Professor of Linguistics at University College Dublin, presented “Sailing towards the Future: New and Old Horizons in Caribbean Linguistics”. She outlined the importance of using digital tools to document Caribbean languages.
Dr Ferreira gave the opening Presidential plenary, “Linguistic Rights, Reform and Reparations in the Creole-Speaking Caribbean: Connecting the Dots”. She looked at the ways in which Caribbean linguists and language activists must be part of the reparations movement and discussions.
Another event highlight was the Presidents’ Panel featuring former society presidents Jeannette Allsopp, Lawrence Carrington, Hubert Devonish, Janet Donnelly, Silvia Kouwenberg, Barbara Lalla, Salikoko Mufwene, Peter Roberts, John Rickford, Ian Robertson, Hazel Simmons-McDonald, Lise Winer, and Donald Winford.
They reviewed SCL’s achievements throughout their first half-century. Five SCL presidents have come from UWI St Augustine. Clive Forrester, former SCL Secretary, took on the office of the president for 2022-2024.
The event’s virtual format proved to have some challenges but lasting benefits. Participants expressed their pleasure in meeting again despite the lack of social interaction and field trips to sites relevant to linguistic research. Dr Ferreira noted that field trips allow researchers to build supportive relationships with residents in the communities.
She hopes the aftermath of the conference “will redound to the benefit of the societies”, and that conference participants will work to get their various governments to listen to linguists and appreciate the importance of the field, which is instrumental in a range of areas like anthropology, education, mathematics, psychology and more.
The society is already planning the next conference which will once more have face-to-face meetings and site visits. Some sessions will be held completely virtually. The plenaries will be live-streamed again.
“I’m hoping we have set an example, a standard for the next conference in both virtual and face-to-face,” explains Dr Ferreira.
Presentations from the conference and information can be found on the SCL website: http://scl-online.net/, at Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/societyforcaribbeanlinguistics/ and YouTube: Search Society for Caribbean Linguistics.
