UNM graduate students played an important role in organizing the fifth-annual High Desert Linguistics Conference, presented by students from the Linguistics Department, when it came to the University Friday and Saturday.
"It is one of the better attended student-run linguistics conferences because it's casual, non-threatening and non-competitive," said Candace Maher, a sociolinguistics masters degree student.
Students from UNM's Anthropology and Psychology Departments volunteered to help the linguistics graduate students organize and put on the conference, Maher said.
The conference, which convened at the Anderson Schools of Management and Dane Smith Hall, was designed to promote and present works in linguistics research, said Christopher Shank, UNM student president of the High Desert Linguistic Conference.
"In essence, it is a professional, academic exchange of ideas concerning linguistics, with a focus on both spoken and signed languages," Shank said.
More than 20 colleges and universities, as well as students and professionals from 11 countries, were represented at the conference by presenters who addressed a broad range of topics studied by researchers in the field.
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"Friday will focus primarily on semantics and discourse, while Saturday will be more concerned with signed languages, phonology and morphology," Maher said.
The diversity of the conference's topic presentations was reflected in the work done by its participants.
Ronald Langacker, professor of cognitive linguistics at the University of California, San Diego, was Friday's keynote speaker and presented his research paper "Unity and Diversity in Possessive Constructions."
Saturday's keynote address was given by Barbara King from The College of William and Mary King said that Jane Lancaster, a UNM anthropology professor, is one of her primary influences.
"I did a year's worth of research in Santa Fe while I was working on my doctorate, and UNM was kind of my base," King said.
Lancaster, who performed her dissertation on primate systems of communication and the emergence of language, teaches courses in primates, evolution and human origins.
King added there is another UNM researcher that deserves praise for contributions to the field of linguistics.
"The importance of gesture and body movement has been undervalued in human communication," King said. "But that is changing thanks to people like Sherman Willcox."
Willcox is the chair of the UNM Linguistics Department.
He said his department is primarily concerned with three general areas of linguistics.
"Functionalist, sign language interpreting and Native American," Shank said.
He added that the program and its members are helping the department make a name for itself.
But UNM researchers and educators were not the only ones receiving credit for a quality conference.
Wilcox also expressed gratitude and respect for the students in the department and for those who worked each day of it.
"It's been a great conference," Willcox added.
