The eighth edition of the international Colloque Bisannuel sur la Diachronie de l’Anglais (Biennial Conference on the Diachrony of English, CBDA-8) will take place in Tours from May 22nd to May 23rd 2025, hosted by the Université de Tours (Laboratoire Ligérien de Linguistique, équipe VETD-VO) and organised in collaboration with the Université de Lorraine-Metz (laboratoire InterDisciplinarité dans les Études Anglophones) and the Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne (Centre Interdisciplinaire de Recherches sur les Langues et la Pensée). The objective of the conference is to provide colleagues working on the history of English, in all fields and from all theoretical perspectives, with an opportunity to present their work and a forum within which to discuss current issues in English diachronic linguistics.
We are delighted to announce that the plenary speakers at this year's conference will be Richard Ingham from the University of Westminster (Great Britain), and Aude Mairey from Sorbonne University (France). Richard Ingham will be giving the second Xavier Dekeyser Memorial Lecture.
Aude Mairey works on the relationships between language, culture, and society in England at the end of the Middle Ages. The formation of a distinct English culture during this period is at the heart of her research, which analyzes the interactions between culture, discourse, language, and social groups. Her aim is to understand how the development of a specific culture and its contact with previously dominant cultures can influence the evolution of thought structures, society as a whole, and people's relationship with power, particularly within the broader transformations of communication systems. In this context, she also studies the formation and evolution of political languages. Additionally, she has become increasingly interested in the study of medievalism in political, cultural, and other spheres. Her publications include Une Angleterre entre rêve et réalité: Littérature et société en Angleterre au XIVe siècle (2007), Richard III (2011), La guerre de Cent Ans (2017), and La fabrique de l’anglais: Genèse socio-culturelle d’une langue (2023).
Richard Ingham is currently Visiting Professor at the University of Westminster (London) and previously Mercator Professor in a DFG project at the University of Mannheim (English linguistics/diachrony). He was prior to that Professor of English Linguistics at Birmingham City University, and taught at the University of Reading. His research areas include the first language acquisition of English syntax and language contact between French and English in medieval England. His diachronic studies focus on bilingualism, sentence structure and negation. His main focus in recent years has been on a better understanding of the circumstances under which French contact influence on English was able to flourish in the medieval period.
Click on the link below to download the conference program and the book of abstracts:
DOWNLOAD THE PROGRAM DOWNLOAD THE BOOK OF ABSTRACTS
The conference will take place at the Centre for Renaissance Studies, located in the historic centre of Tours. The venue is comprised of two buildings: the former Hôtel de Camors, which dates back to the 15th century, and a 17th-century canon's house.
CESR - 59, rue Néricault-Destouches, 37000 Tours
We can recommend the following hotels, all of which are within walking distance of the conference venue.
** Logis Hôtel des Châteaux de la Loire
**** Hilton Garden Inn Tours Centre