DEADLINE EXTENSION: "Empirical approaches to Multi-Modality and Language variation" (AFLiCo 5, Lille, France)

[Maarten Lemmens]

[apologies for multiple postings]

VERY LAST CALL FOR PAPERS - AFLiCo 5

*EXTENDED SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 25 November 2012*

“Empirical Approaches to Multi-modality and to Language Variation”

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)

OBJECTIVES
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).

THEMATIC SESSIONS
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.

GENERAL SESSIONS
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).

SUBMISSION PROCEDURE
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 website 
(http://aflico5.sciencesconf.org/). Researchers who have a login on the 
HAL-SHS website can use that instead of creating a new one.

IMPORTANT DATES
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)

REGISTRATION
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.

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

CONFERENCE WEBSITE
http://aflico5.sciencesconf.org/

SPRING SCHOOL
To enhance the success of the empirical dimension, we will organise, 
pending funding, a Spring School on “Empirical methods in Usage-Based 
Linguistics” on the two days preceding the conference (i.e. on May 13 
and 14) with 5 parallel workshops on different empirical approaches, 
each presenting a specific methodology or tool:
(1) corpus linguistics: principles and general methods (Dagmar Divjak, 
University of Sheffield, UK);
(2) statistics in corpus linguistics with R (Dylan Glynn, Lund 
University, Sweden);
(3) annotating and analysing multi-modal data in ELAN (Mark Tutton, 
University of Nantes, France);
(4) transcribing and analysing oral data in CLAN (Christophe Parisse, 
University of Paris 10, France);
(5) methods in psycholinguistic experiments ([to be confirmed]).
Further details will be posted on the conference website.

ORGANISING COMMITTEE:
Maarten Lemmens, UMR 8163 STL (CNRS and Universities of Lille 3 and Lille 1)
Annie Risler, UMR 8163 STL (CNRS and Universities of Lille 3 and Lille 1)
Bert Cappelle, UMR 8163 STL (CNRS and Universities of Lille 3 and Lille 1)
Dany Amiot, UMR 8163 STL (CNRS and Universities of Lille 3 and Lille 1)

SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE
Florence Chenu, University of Lyon 2, France
Marion Blondel,  University of Paris 8, France
Jana Bressem, University of Frankfurt an der Oder, Germany
Georgette Dal, University of Lille 3, France
Nicole Delbecque, University of Leuven, Belgium
Walter Demulder, University of Antwerp, Belgium
Guillaume Desagulier, University of Paris 8
Elisabeth Engberg-Pedersen, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Sonja Erlenkamp, University of Trondheim, Norway
Jean-Michel Fortis, University of Paris 7, France
Craig Hamilton, University of Mulhouse, France
Dylan Glynn, University of Lund, Sweden
Maya Hickmann, University of Paris 5, France
Harriet Jisa, University of Lyon 2, France
Annetta Kopecka, University of Lyon 2, France
Silva Ladewig, University of Frankfort an der Oder, Germany
Jean-Rémi Lapaire, University of Bordeaux 3, France
Diana Lewis, University Provence, France
Aliyah Morgenstern, University of Paris 3, France
Caroline Rossi, University of Lyon 2, France
Stéphane Robert, Fédération TUL - FR 2559, France
Paul Sambre, Lessius Hogeschool, Antwerp, Belgium
Mark Tutton, University de Nantes, France
Kristel van Goethem, University of Louvain, Belgium
Myriam Vermeerbergen, University of Leuven, Belgium
Bencie Woll, University College London, U.K.
Sherman Wilcox, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA