programme and presenter info  ||  travel and accommodation  ||  booking for the conference  ||  special session

Programme
The final version of the programme for the 24mfm (which includes information about the facilities at Hulme Hall and some maps) is available here:

24mfm programme

The abstracts booklet for the 24mfm (the file is 9.5 MB so may take a while to download) is available here:

24mfm abstracts booklet

The list of participants in the conference is here:

24mfm list of participants

Registration will begin at 11.30 on Thursday 26th May. The midday meal on the 26th begins at 12.00 and the conference proper begins at 12.45. The conference will finish around 5.15 on Saturday 28th May.

As in previous years, the conference venue will be the Hulme Hall lecture suite in Manchester, which is located just south of the city centre and is easily accessible by public transport or on foot. Details of how to get there are given here.

Notes for poster-presenters: The poster displays will be set up in the evening before your poster session - so please bring your poster the day before you are due to present. You will be allocated a poster board with these dimensions: 210cm high x 120cm wide. Each person presenting a poster will be provided with the means to affix their posters to the display board. Please feel free to bring handouts with you, so that those viewing your poster also have something to take away. Posters in previous years have taken a wide variety of forms, and there is no one single way to produce a good poster; the important things are that the font size is not too small, that it is easily readable and does not have too much text on it, that it sets out the main points that you want to argue for clearly, and maybe that it's eye catching, too. Some presenters bring one big poster which takes up all the space (do note the dimensions of the poster board given above if you do this), others bring a series of A3 or A4 sheets of paper which can be fitted together on the poster board. During your poster session, you will be asked to stand by your poster (for at least a fair amount of the session) as other conference participants walk around the displays, read your poster and ask you questions about it.

Travel and accommodation
Detailed information on accommodation possibilities and on how to get to the conference (with a selection of maps) are provided on separate pages:

• the travel and directions page is available here [also with links to information on Manchester and its many attractions]
• advice on where to stay in Manchester is available here

Booking
Booking was possible until the end of 15th May, and is no longer possible. Contact patrick.honeybone@ed.ac.uk with any queries.

Cancellation policy: we will endeavour to refund any fees paid if you cancel by 16th May. Any cancellations after 16th May may not able to be fully refunded as we will have committed to certain payments on your behalf.

Special session
A special themed session is being organised for Friday 27th May by members of the organising committee and the advisory board. This will feature the invited speakers and invited discussant listed below, and will also allow for open discussion when contributions from the audience will be very welcome.

Invited speakers (in alphabetical order)

William Idsardi (University of Maryland)

Janet Pierrehumbert (University of Oxford)

Sharon Rose (University of California, San Diego)

Evidence in phonology
We aim to provide an opportunity for our invited speakers and audience to reflect on the status of the various types of data that have been used in phonological argumentation, in the light of both recent developments and classic concerns. Specifically, we invite our speakers to address some of the following questions:

• Why are the sources of evidence that you draw on especially probative for the theoretical question that you are trying to answer? How do you extrapolate from the observable evidence to claims about phonological grammar? What do you think are the strengths and weaknesses of the different data sources that phonologists use? Are there important questions that specific sources of evidence cannot answer?
  

• Do the conclusions you draw from one type of evidence conflict with conclusions that others have drawn from other types of evidence? If so, is there a contradiction in what different types of data are telling us, or does this reflect a difference in assumptions about what phonological theory should explain?

• What is your experience with the replication of data, whether in fieldwork, experiments, consultant-based discussion, or anything else? What do you make of the recent discussion concerning the poor replicability of experimental social science research?

• What counts as counterevidence for you? What role should exceptions (within a single language or at the cross-linguistic level) play in evaluating the evidence for a generalisation and the analysis built on the generalisation? More generally, are there types of (commonly cited) evidence whose value you deny on principle?