The University of La Laguna inaugurated today, November 12th, the International Congress of Linguistics: Half a Century of the Andrés Bello University Institute of Linguistics (INULAB), a meeting that commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of its founding and brings together research staff from this field of philology between November 12 and 14 at the Guajara Campus of the academic institution.
The opening ceremony, held in the Assembly Hall of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Communication, was attended by the Vice-Rector for Research and Transfer, Antonio Aparicio; the Director of the Secretariat of University Institutes and Publications, Roberto González; the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, Javier Medina; and the Deputy Director of INULAB, Dolores Serrano-Niza.
The vice-rector has stated that his team is committed to strengthening the work of the 14 university institutes at the University of La Laguna. He also emphasized that the development of research in the humanities and social sciences is essential. “We must firmly contribute to dispelling this completely erroneous notion that research is solely the domain of science and technology,” he noted.
The Director of the Secretariat of University Institutes and Publications congratulated the congress organizers on the high quality of the program, the speakers, and the activities surrounding the event. González also emphasized that this initiative aligns with the Vice-Rector's commitment to promoting research in all fields of knowledge. Furthermore, he highlighted that INULAB, with its research on Canarian Spanish and many other languages, serves as a prime example of research with a significant regional impact.
For his part, the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities paid tribute to those who founded and led INULAB in its early years, highlighting the figure of the philologist and emeritus professor Ramón Trujillo. He also acknowledged the work of the teams that have consolidated the institute over five decades and emphasized the role of the next generation, aware of the importance of the past and future of linguistics in the 21st century.
Medina also pointed out the challenges the humanities and linguistics have faced in a world that often follows paths different from their working methods. “Fortunately, we have also found support from people sensitive to our daily work, able to understand that our methods do not always conform to the criteria of other disciplines, more commonly classified as pure sciences, although our field is undoubtedly also a science.”.
The deputy director of INULAB welcomed attendees to the congress on behalf of the institute's director, José Juan Bautista, highlighting his generosity and commitment to gender equality in giving her the floor. Serrano-Niza noted that half a century of existence represents not only a long history, but also a "life well-lived and significant" for a humanities institute. She also emphasized the institution's unique history, highlighting its ability to maintain harmonious coexistence among different generations, as well as the work of the current leadership team, which safeguards the legacy of its predecessors while simultaneously fostering new generations of researchers.
She also highlighted the importance of linguistics as an essential discipline for knowledge. Citing Bertrand Russell and Noam Chomsky, she explained that language allows us to access thought, communicate ideas, and construct knowledge, and affirmed that INULAB is dedicated to linguistics “in its broadest sense,” making a significant contribution to the humanities at the University of La Laguna.
In 1975, Professor Ramón Trujillo conceived the idea of creating a linguistics institute with an Atlantic focus. A year later, he founded the "Andrés Bello" Institute of Linguistics, now known as the Andrés Bello University Institute of Linguistics (INULAB). It is the second oldest of the 13 linguistic institutes currently existing at the University of La Laguna and has progressively expanded its scope of study, encompassing an increasing number of languages and disciplines, while never abandoning its original purpose of being a center for philological research with an Atlantic focus.
The congress will host linguistic research from both a general and comparative perspective, covering diverse fields of study, such as phonetics and phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, lexicology, lexicography, sociolinguistics and varieties, translation and interpretation, language acquisition and teaching, discourse analysis, languages for specific purposes and linguistic historiography.
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