27.4926, Calls: Discourse Analysis, Gen Ling, Pragmatics, Semantics, Text/Corpus Ling/Sweden

Thu Dec 1 20:21:05 UTC 2016

LINGUIST List: Vol-27-4926. Thu Dec 01 2016. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 27.4926, Calls: Discourse Analysis, Gen Ling, Pragmatics, Semantics, Text/Corpus Ling/Sweden

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Date: Thu, 01 Dec 2016 15:20:57
From: Malin Roitman [malin.roitman at su.se]
Subject: The Pragmatics of Negation – Aspects of Communication

Full Title: The Pragmatics of Negation – Aspects of Communication 

Date: 31-May-2017 - 02-Jun-2017
Location: Stockholm, Sweden 
Contact Person: Malin Roitman
Meeting Email: malin.roitman at su.se

Linguistic Field(s): Discourse Analysis; General Linguistics; Pragmatics; Semantics; Text/Corpus Linguistics 

Call Deadline: 05-Jan-2017 

Meeting Description:

An international conference Pragmatics of Negation-Aspects of Communication
will take place in Stockholm from May 31 to June 2, 2017. The meeting is
organized by the Department of Romance studies and Classics at Stockholm
University 31 May-2 June. 2017. Conference languages will be English, French
and Spanish, but we also
welcome presentations on negation in other languages. The theme Pragmatics of
Negation has been the subject of two research panels at the International
Pragmatic Association’s (IPRA) international conference (2011 and in 2013).
The second panel resulted in a collective volume that will appear in the
beginning of 2017 (Roitman (eds), forthcoming).

Negation is one of the uncontested language universals. It is among the most
complex, phenomena of human languages. The structural expressions of negation
and negative functions are connected to all language levels; it has been
studied in different linguistic domains, in pragmatics not the least.

The pragmatics of negation, which is actually one of the most privileged areas
for negation studies, involves how we use and interpret different forms of
negation in communication. What meanings do forms of negation generate in
different contexts? The conference will also promote studies on how negative
meanings are created in  specific contexts: what linguistic forms and figures,
other than negation lexica, may generate negative meanings?

The theme of the conference relates back to the asymmetric postulate of
negative sentences as non-equivalent to inverted assertions, but an operator
that carries more complex structures, on a syntactical, lexical and semantic
level. Arguments for negation being essentially different from assertions have
been presented in studies on negation’s relation to negative polarity item, to
quantifiers, to scalar words, on the unequal reference ability (of negations
and assertions) and on the fact that the interpretation of negatives is a
cognitively demanding process. Probably because of these mentioned factors,
negation generally constitutes a marked item in discourse; negatives break
with the expectations in the context and also hint a subjacent positive
counterpart. Meanings of negations therefore gain from being analysed by
taking into account criteria that go beyond the formal linguistic aspects of
language and take into consideration the communicative situation and the
interplay between the interlocutors involved in the interaction.

The focus of the conference will be on corpus driven studies where the
connection is made between the use, meanings and forms of negation in relation
to genre, in a broad sense of social and cultural activity.

Call for Papers:

Potential topics include but are not limited to:

1) Relation negative forms – negative functions in a genre perspective. Are
they related to the text type and genre? One may for example expect initial
negation (No, etc.) to be more common in interactive genres, and pre- or post
verbal phrase negations to be more frequent in more formal with only one
speaking subject.

2) Negation and figure of speech. How is negation linked to rhetorical devices
as metaphors, litotes, irony, maxims, proverbs, etc.? Is negation a figure of
speech in itself? Are there some language evolutionary aspects to be
considered here?

3) Negation in political, media and constitutional discourse. Professionals in
media, media training and academic writing generally propose a restrictive use
of negations in order to produce clear, unambiguous and comprehensive texts.
Can we say that negation is less suitable for  straightforward communication?
On what grounds? 

4) Negation has, within French enunciation theories, been considered an
operator in language that subdivides negative utterances into hierarchical
organized strata creating multi-voiced “polyphonic” texts. Within Critical
Discourse Analysis negation appears as one of heterogeneous linguistic
entities that may represent and reflect power relations and real hierarchies
in language. Fauconnier, within his theory on “mental spaces”, has described
negation as “space opener” that creates and unifies two worlds in a meaning
construction process. Givón postulates  negative utterances to embrace a
pragmatic presupposition. Can these perspectives – all dealing with the
interference of a positive counterpart in negatives – complete each other?

5) Negation in language acquisition and cognitive aspects of processing and
understanding negative utterances. Many language acquisition studies show that
negation is acquired late because of its syntactic and cognitive complexity
that may have implications on comprehension and interpretation. Do these
findings have any impact on the didactics of language learning?

Submission of abstracts for presentations:

The deadline to submit abstracts is the 5th of January. To submit your
abstract, please send it to this address: pragmatics.negation at su.se Your
abstract may be written in English, French or Spanish. Please ensure that the
following information is included in the document:

Title of presentation
Theme
Your name
Your institution
Phone number
Email address
Summary (maximum 300 words)
References (Maximum five)

Important Dates:

30 November (2016): Call for paper is published
5 of January (2017): deadline for submission
31 of January: Participants receive notification of acceptance and Word
template for abstract
15 Mars: Participants send revised abstract according to template to
pragmatics.negation at su.se
1-30 April: Registration and payment at Konferensservice (see further
information on website published in January)
31 Maj - 2 June: Days of conference

For any enquiries regarding the conference, please contact:
pragmatics.negation at su.se

We are looking forward to your participation and to welcome you to Stockholm

Scientific Committee:

Camilla Bardel (Stockholms universitet)
María Bernal (Stockholms universitet)
Östen Dahl (Stockholms universitet)
Lars Fant (Stockholms universitet)
Fanny Forsberg Lundell (Stockholms universitet)
Mats Forsgren (Stockholms universitet)
Tomas Johnen (Stockholms universitet)
Hans Kronning (Uppsala universitet)
Pierre Larrivé (Université de Caen)
Matti Miestamo (Helsingfors universitet)
Maj-Britt Mosegaard-Hansen, (Manchester University)
Claude Muller (Université Michel de Montaigne, Bordeaux 3)
Franck Neveu (Université de Caen, Crisco)
Malin Roitman (Stockholms universitet)
Francoise Sullet-Nylander (Stockholms universitet)
Ljuba Vasilijeva (Stockholms universitet)

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