From a UW press release:
The University of Wyoming Department of Anthropology's "Language, Culture and History Conference" starts Thursday, July 1, with a keynote talk by Professor Michael Silverstein, MacArthur Award-winning linguistic anthropologist from the University of Chicago.
He will discuss a "hapax legomenon," at 9 a.m. in the College of Education auditorium. Other sessions will be in Room 150 of the Anthropology Building.
The hapax legomenon is a unique textual example in the Northwestern American Indian language of Kiksht, showing how the use of passive construction reflects the unstable world of the Kiksht and colonizing pressures of the early 1900s, Silverstein says.
The conference will feature nearly 30 presenters from the United States, England and Canada talking on issues including Native American narrative and song, histories of colonialism and language use, international language ideologies, Muslim identity and deaf culture.
Silverstein's talk is sponsored by the Wyoming Humanities Council and refreshments afterwards are sponsored by the journal Ethnohistory. Both are free and open to the public.
