The Head of the Department of Language, Linguistics and Philosophy at the Mona Campus of the University of the West, Professor Hubert Devonish, will deliver a commemorative lecture at the Phillip Sherlock Centre for the Creative Arts on Tuesday, June 26, at 5:30 p.m.

His lecture is titled “ While You Were Away: The Exciting New World of Caribbean Linguistics ” and will be in tribute to retiring Director of the School of Continuing Studies, Pro Vice Chancellor Lawrence D. Carrington, Professor of Creole Linguistics.

Professor Devonish, a previous linguistics student of Professor Carrington, said he was deeply honoured to have been chosen as the speaker for this event, as Professor Carrington has “provided a great gift to the people of the Caribbean with his seminal work on St. Lucian French-lexicon Creole, as well as his pioneering work on the issue of Creole languages in education”.

The lecture uses the occasion to update the honoree, and by extension the audience, on some of the exciting new developments in Caribbean Linguistics which have taken place in the last decade. This was the period in which the honoree was devoting himself to pursuits other than those related to Caribbean Linguistics. Professor Devonish hopes that this lecture will provide a glimpse into how Caribbean linguistics is continually evolving and growing, and reveal some of the interesting new insights which it can provide about the origins of Caribbean peoples. This lecture will be a high point amongst the many events planned to honour the work and legacy of Professor Carrington throughout the region.

Commemorative Linguistics Lecture continued…..
Professor Devonish is currently Head of the Department of Language, Linguistics and Philosophy at UWI, Mona. He was appointed as Professor of Linguistics at UWI in 1997. His 1986 book, Language and Liberation: Creole Language Politics in the Caribbean, is due to be reissued with a 70 page updating chapter by Arawak Press, Kingston, in July, 2007.

For further information on the event, please contact: School of Continuing Studies
(876) 921-1201 or 920-0720; lifelong @uwimona.edu.jm