5th intl conf on asian / african langs the 5th international conference on the languages of far east , southeast asia and west africa first circular the university of st . petersburg and the institute for asian and african studies ( moscow state university ) are pleased to announce that the 5th international conference * the languages of far east , southeast asia and west africa * will be held in st . petersburg on september 7-11 , 1999 . the conference site is the university of st . petersburg , dept of oriental studies ( 11 , universitetskaja nab . , 199034 , st . petersburg , russia ) . building on the success of its predecessors ( moscow 1991 , 1993 , 1995 , 1997 ) , this conference aims to encourage a spirit of dialogue between students of far east / southeast asia and of west africa . the conference offers a unique opportunity for its participants to exchange views on the languages whose structures share so many features , despite the genetic or areal unrelatedness . special session a special session will be held , devoted to theoretical frameworks for the analysis of isolating languages . it has been revealed more than once in the course of discussions at previous leseawa conferences that we badly need a common metalanguage in terms of which a coherent analyses of the languages of fe , sea , and wa would be most efficient . we are certainly far from an intention to develop an esoteric metalanguage . on the contrary , our ultimate goal is to eventually enrich the common stock of theoretical notions , where analyses of both " more traditional " and " less traditional " languages would be fully commensurable . most of currently used linguistic models are not properly equipped to give a student of fe , sea , and wa languages reliable analytic tools , even where such fundamental linguistic objects as the phoneme , parts of speech , clause , etc . are concerned . invited speakers are to be announced . working languages will be english and russian . applications and abstracts ( ca . 100 words ) should be submitted to : prof . dr . rudolph yanson , chair , dept of china , sea , and korea , univ . of st . petersburg < yanson @ ry1703 . spb . edu > , fax ( 812 ) 3287861 , phone ( 812 ) 3213767 ( home ) all submissions are subject to refereeing by the program committee . e - mail submissions are strongly encouraged . deadline for response to the 1st circular is march 10 , 1999 . notifications of acceptance will be mailed out before may 1999 . registration fee is usd 60 . the registration fee includes the volume of conference proceedings , coffee-breakes , lunch ( please specify if you require a vegetarian or vegan option ) , cultural program , etc . organizing committee : rudolph yanson ( chair ) marc kaploun ( vice-chair ) fax ( 095 ) 203-3647 alexandre storozhuk ( secretary ) angelina gerasimova aleksey vasiljev program committee : vadim kassevitch ( chair ) < kasevich @ vbk . usr . pu . ru > artemy karapetianz ( vice-chair ) victor vinogradov ( vice-chair ) mikhail rumjantsev rudolf yanson andrey zhukov nikolay dobronravin alexandre ogloblin sergey yakhontov - - prof . dr . vadim b . kassevitch ( univ . of st . petersburg ) p . o . box 14 , st . petersburg , 191025 , russia phone ( 7-812 ) 314-6123 ( home ) , fax ( 7-812 ) 2181346 ( office ) < kasevich @ vbk . usr . pu . ru >