International Association of Chinese Linguistics
A non-profit organization devoted to the promotion of scientific research
Federal Tax ID 99-0536495. California EDD Account: 394-1830-6
About the Organization
The International Association of Chinese Linguistics (IACL) is a professional organization devoted to the promotion of scientific research on Chinese languages and their dialects. It has been incorporated in the State of California and approved as a 501-(c)-3 non-profit organization by the United States Internal Revenue Service.
The IACL is governed by an Executive Committee consisting of a President, a Vice President and 14 other members elected by vote of the general membership, and its functions and services are performed by the Secretariat consisting of an Executive Secretary, a Vice Executive Secretary, and a Treasurer.
A Brief History
A Brief History The IACL was created on June 25, 1992 in Singapore during the First International Conference on Chinese Linguistics (ICCL-1) hosted by the National University of Singapore. This was the result of over a year's planning and preparation by a group of leading scholars. The idea for the creation of IACL came up in the winter of 1991, during e-mail communication between Professor Chung-yu Chen of National University of Singapore and Professor C.-T. James Huang of Cornell University. In the summer of 1991, during the 3rd North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics (NACCL-3) at Cornell, Chen and Huang were joined by Alain Peyraube and Benjamin T'sou in planning a series of international conferences on Chinese linguistics to begin in Singapore in 1992, and the creation of the International Association of Chinese Linguistics. At the NACCL-3 Business Meeting, a Steering Committee consisting of Chen, Huang, Peyraube, and T'sou (later joined by Dah-An Ho) was formed (with Huang as Chair) and charged with planning the creation of IACL and with preparing a draft Constitution for the Association. During the Business Meeting of the 1st International Conference on Chinese Linguistics (ICCL-1) held in Singapore, Conference Chair Chung-Yu Chen called upon James Huang to conduct a special session, with other members of the Steering Committee Who were present (Chiu-Yu Tseng substituting for Dah-an Ho) and some 95 linguists in attendance.
During the session, the draft Constitution prepared by the Planning Committee was read, discussed, revised, and voted on article by article. At the end of the session the proposal to create the International Association of Chinese Linguistics, governed by the articles of the Constitution as revised and approved, was unanimously passed, and IACL was created. (An article giving more details of the meeting and listing the charter members of the Association, authored by Benjamin T'sou and published in Journal of Chinese Linguistics, can be found at this location.)
Following its creation and in accordance with its Constitution, the IACL Secretariat was established in the U.S.A., at the Department of Linguistics, University of California, Irvine. In November, IACL applied for incorporation in the State of California and the application was approved in January 1993. IACL also applied to the Internal Revenue Service for non-profit tax-exempt status and received an advanced ruling in its favor in late 1993. Formal approval was received at the end of the advanced ruling period, in 1996, designating IACL as a non-profit, tax-exempt organization within the meaning of IRS code 501-(c)-3, devoted solely to the advancement of scholarly research.
The first issue of IACL Newsletter was published and sent to all its members
in January 1993. Since then the newsletter has appeared three times a year.
Each year, IACL holds an annual international conference at a selected site.
Following the first conference in Singapore, IACL Annual Conferences have been
held in France, Hong Kong, the United States, Taiwan, the Netherlands, and Australia.