The 14th Meeting of the International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association (ICPLA) was held on 27–30 June 2012 at University College Cork, Ireland. The conference was the largest so far, attracting around 250 delegates from 33 different countries. The scientific programme included a total of 160 posters, 60 oral sessions, 9 thematic panels, 4 plenary talks, and 1 award presentation. For the first time, the Association awarded its highest token of recognition – the Honours of the Association. The honoree was Prof. David Crystal, for his pioneering work in the field of Clinical Linguistics, his important ongoing work in that field, and in the study of language in general. The award ceremony consisted of a summary of David's contribution to Clinical Linguistics by Paul Fletcher (Emeritus Professor at University College Cork) and the presentation of a commemorative Waterford crystal bowl. This was followed by a dialogue session with Prof. Crystal – “In conversation with David Crystal”, in which he discussed with the audience the history and future of clinical linguistics.
The current issue includes seven papers from the conference. The first paper, “Clinical linguistics: Conversational reflections” by David Crystal, comes from his dialogue session with the delegates in the conference. The second paper, “Why reference to the past is difficult for some agrammatic speakers, but not for all” by Roelien Bastiaanse and the third paper, “Language processing in children with cochlear implants: A preliminary report on lexical access for production and comprehension” by Richard Schwartz are based on their plenary talks. The remaining four are papers based on oral or poster presentations by the following authors: Carol Stoel Gammon and A. Lynn Williams; Caroline Newton, Rebecca Burns and Carolyn Bruce; Joanne Cleland, Caitlin McCron and Jim Scobbie; Alice Lee, Fiona Gibbon and Cliona O'Donovan. More papers from the conference will appear in a future issue of the journal.
Alice Lee and Fiona Gibbon
Guest Editors