CfP for Theme Session at ICLC2007: Cognitive Sociolinguistics

[Yves Peirsman]

First Call for Papers for a Theme Session at the 10th International 
Cognitive Linguistics Conference


THEME: Cognitive Sociolinguistics

ORGANISERS:	
Dirk Geeraerts, University of Leuven, dirk.geeraerts [at] arts.kuleuven.be
Gitte Kristiansen, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, gkristia [at] 
filol.ucm.es	
Yves Peirsman, University of Leuven, yves.peirsman [at] arts.kuleuven.be	

EVENT: 		
10th International Cognitive Linguistics Conference
Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland
15-20 July 2007
www.iclc2007.pl



INTRODUCTION

Although there is a growing interest within Cognitive Linguistics for 
language-internal variation (see Kristiansen and Dirven, forthcoming: 
Cognitive Sociolinguistics, Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter), it remains an 
understudied area in Cognitive Linguistics. Too often linguistic 
analyses (or cross-linguistic comparisons) are carried out at the level 
of 'a language', disregarding rich and complex patterns of intralingual 
variation. Such a level of granularity ultimately amounts to that of a 
homogeneous and thus idealized speech community. Cognitive Linguistics, 
to the extent that it takes the claim that it is a usage-based approach 
to language and cognition seriously, cannot afford to work with language 
situated taxonomically at an almost Chomskyan level of abstraction. The 
purpose of the theme session is therefore to bring together examples of 
outstanding sociolinguistic research within the field of Cognitive 
Linguistics.



THE SCOPE OF COGNITIVE SOCIOLINGUISTICS

The domain of investigation of Cognitive Sociolinguistics may be roughly 
divided into three main areas, each of which represents a specific 
relationship between cognition and language-internal linguistic 
diversity (which we will henceforth refer to as "lectal variation"). We 
invite abstracts for presentations in all three areas:

1. LECTAL VARIATION AND KNOWLEDGE OF THE LANGUAGE

How does language-internal variation affect the occurrence of linguistic 
phenomena, and in particular, how does it affect the occurrence of 
linguistic phenomena that have the specific attention of Cognitive 
Linguistics? The question involves not only active knowledge of the 
language (i.e. language use), but also passive knowledge (i.e. reading 
and understanding skills).

Existing examples of Cognitive Linguistic work in this area may be found 
in Berthele's work on verbal framing in the Swiss dialects, the work by 
Gries and Stefanowitsch on register variation in collostructions, and 
Croft's views on the importance of social variation for a theory of 
linguistic change.

Topics of specific interest within this domain of research include

- lectal factors in language acquisition: how does the change in an 
individual's knowledge of the language interact with social factors?
- language variation and change: how do changes spread over a linguistic 
community, what is the role of distributed linguistic
cognition in these processes, and how does the feedback loop between 
individual acts and common systemic changes actually work?
- multivariate models of language variation: what analytical and 
descriptive tools do we need to arrive at an adequate description of 
linguistic variation?

2. LECTAL VARIATION, LANGUAGE AND THOUGHT

A lot of front-edge research is looking into the relationship between 
language and thought (Slobin, Bowerman etc.), but this is basically done 
from an interlingual (typological) point of view. What happens if you 
conduct similar research from an intralingual point of view? Does lectal 
variation have the same effect on the
relationship between language and thought as typological variation?

Although this is only an emerging trend, a clear example of Cognitive 
Linguistic work in this area is Grondelaers' work on the 
psycholinguistic correlates of the multifactorial distribution of Dutch 
"er".

Topics of specific interest within this domain of research involve

- the relationship between language and culture: do language-internal 
differences in the relationship between language and thought reflect 
differences of "culture" ?
- the relationship between cultural models and thought: to what extent 
does variation in cultural models within a community correlate with 
cognitive differences?

3. THE COGNITIVE REPRESENTATION OF LECTAL VARIATION

How do language users perceive lectal differences, and how do they 
evaluate them attitudinally? What models do they use to categorize 
linguistic diversity?

Examples of this kind of work within the framework of Cognitive 
Linguistics are Kristiansen's work on the socially informed prototype 
structure of phonemes, or Geeraerts' work on cultural models of 
standardization.

Topics of specific interest within this domain of research include

- stereotyping: how do language users categorize other groups of speakers?
- subjective and objective linguistic distances: is there a correlation 
between objective linguistic distances, perceived distances, and 
language attitudes?
- cultural models of language diversity: what models of lectal 
variation, standardization, and language change do people work with?
- attitudes, perception, and change: to what extent do attitudinal and 
perceptual factors have an influence on language change?



STRUCTURE OF THE SESSION

Our theme session will consist of
(1) presentations of the selected papers,
(2) presentations by a number of invited specialists,
(3) three 20-minute thematic discussion slots.



PROCEDURE

We invite abstracts of max. 500 words for 20-minute presentations in the 
three areas described above. Your abstract should contain:

- The title of the presentation
- Your name(s), affiliation(s) and e-mail address(es)
- The research question(s) that you address
- A discussion of the methodology
- A description of the data
- A summary of the obtained results

Abstracts should be sent to all three theme session organisers before 
October 31, 2006.



SCHEDULE

Deadline call for abstracts: October 31, 2006
Notification of acceptance/rejection of abstracts: November 15, 2006
Submission of the theme session proposal to the conference organisers: 
November 15, 2006
Notification of acceptance/rejection of theme session: February 1, 2007

For up-to-date information about the theme session, see 
wwwling.arts.kuleuven.be/qlvl.


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