Call for papers

Fifth International Conference of the Association Française de Linguistique Cognitive 

(AFLiCo 5)

University of Lille 3, Lille, France

May 15-17, 2013

http://aflico5.sciencesconf.org/

PLENARY SPEAKERS (titles and abstracts on conference web site)

Dagmar Divjak (University of Sheffield)

Colette Grinevald (University of Lyon 2)

Irene Mittelberg (RWTH Aachen University)

Gary Morgan (City University London)

François Rastier (CNRS and INALCO Paris)

Luc Steels (ICREA (IBE-UPF-CSIC) BARCELONA & SONY CSL PARIS)

This conference chiefly aims at consolidating and strengthening the network of cognitive linguists working in France and abroad by providing a forum for discussion and collaboration in the tradition of the preceding AFLiCo conferences in Bordeaux (2005), Lille (2007), Nanterre (2009) and Lyon (2011) and the ‘JET’ workshops in Bordeaux (2010) and Paris (2012).

This conference will be the fifth international conference of the Association Française de Linguistique Cognitive (AFLiCo; www.aflico.fr). The conference’s major foci are in line with the direction the previous AFLiCo conferences were headed in: multi-modality (in particular, co-verbal gestures and signed languages viewed as multi-channel communication systems) and linguistic variation (typology as well as intra-language variation). However, the conference seeks to add an important dimension to this direction, viz. empirical methods in (cognitive) linguistics, which have recently been attracting growing interest. With this emphasis on empirical approaches, the conference meets a real need of the linguistic community (cognitive or otherwise), given that the field of linguistics is shifting ever more rapidly towards interdisciplinary approaches, using various advanced empirical methods, ranging from psycholinguistic experiments to sophisticated analyses based on (large) corpora.

The study of multi-modality recognizes the frequent simultaneous presence of multiple communication channels. In the visual domain, co-verbal gestures underscore the embodied nature of language proposed by cognitive linguistics. In the aural domain, para-verbal aspects of utterances (pitch, intonation, voice quality, etc.) beg the question of how to isolate stable correspondences between these ‘forms’ and semantic (particularly attitudinal) values.

As was the case for the 2007 AFLiCo conference held in Lille, we explicitly welcome proposals for papers on signed languages, which by their very nature are multi-modal communication systems, as the signed utterance is brought about not just by means of hand gestures but also through posture and movements of, inter alia, the upper body, the head, the mouth and the eyebrows. Signed languages provide a window to the human mind and its capacity to represent abstract concepts in concrete, material forms; cognitive linguistics offers a well-suited model to account for iconicity, metaphor and metonymy, which are central to the study of the world’s signed languages. The topic of signed languages ties in with the LSF (langue des signes française) Interpreter training at the University of Lille 3.

Cross-linguistic variation has been the object of typological and comparative cognitive studies which address the issue of universal grammar and linguistic relativity. With regard to intra-language variation, recent years have witnessed the emergence of a cognitive sociolinguistics. Language variation is also a key ingredient in explaining language change and grammaticalization. 

The conference will not be limited to thematic sessions devoted to the main foci described above. The organisers also encourage researchers to submit proposals within other areas of cognitive linguistics, to be presented in the general parallel sessions. Possible topics include (but are not restricted to):

- (cognitive) construction grammar

- conceptual metaphors

- image schemata

- frame semantics

- coercion and the tension between productivity and convention in language

- computer modelling based on empirical data

- problems and solutions in empirical methods: corpus studies, acceptability ratings, response time measurements, event-related potential experiments, eye tracking studies, etc.

The organisers further encourage young researchers to submit an abstract.

NOTE: for organisational reasons, the thematic sessions on signed languages will be grouped on the first day of the conference (15 May).

Abstracts will be submitted to a double, blind review. They should be fully anonymous and not exceed 500 words (references excluded). Submission is to be done via a login on the conference the website.

Submission deadline: November 25, 2012

Notification of acceptance: January 15, 2013

Workshop “Empirical methods in Usage-Based Linguistics”: May 13 and 14, 2013

Conference dates: May 15-17, 2013

(TBC: registration & welcome reception: May 14, from 17:00)

Details about the registration procedure and registration deadlines will be posted on the conference website as soon as they become available. There will be reduced registration fee for AFLiCo members and students as well as early bird reduction.

English (preferred), French, LSF (please notify the organisers in advance)