36.525, Calls: Discourse Analysis, Ling & Literature, Pragmatics, Semantics, Text/Corpus Linguistics / Germany

Sat Feb 8 03:05:02 UTC 2025

LINGUIST List: Vol-36-525. Sat Feb 08 2025. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 36.525, Calls: Discourse Analysis, Ling & Literature, Pragmatics, Semantics, Text/Corpus Linguistics / Germany

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Date: 08-Feb-2025
From: Esme Winter-Froemel [esme.winter-froemel at uni-wuerzburg.de]
Subject: Wordplay and Exclusion

Full Title: Wordplay and Exclusion

Date: 30-May-2025 - 31-May-2025
Location: Würzburg / online, Germany
Contact Person: Esme Winter-Froemel
Meeting Email: esme.winter-froemel at uni-wuerzburg.de

Linguistic Field(s): Discourse Analysis; Ling & Literature;
Pragmatics; Semantics; Text/Corpus Linguistics

Call Deadline: 07-Mar-2025

Call for Papers:
Wordplay typically appears to be funny and innocent, and previous
research on wordplay and verbal humour has often foregrounded this
aspect, which can be seen as being prototypical of wordplay. Among
others, there has been a focus on laughter and amusement as key
effects of wordplay (cf. Winter-Froemel 2009; 2016), or on functions
of bonding and the strengthening of group identities (see also
traditional concepts such as French connivence). However, wordplay can
also be used with underlying strategies and agendas that may involve
manipulation of opinions, aggression or discrimination of target
groups of verbal humour (cf. Attardo 2017, 2018). An interplay of
inclusion and exclusion can be observed in phenomena such as irony
(cf. Giora & Gur 2003, Gibbs & Colston 2007, Athanasiadou & Colston
2017), double entendre (cf. Goth 2015), contrepèteries (Rabatel 2015),
ludic uses of secret languages, argots or cants (e.g., Gibberish, Pig
Latin, French loucherbèm; German B-Sprache, cf. Hardy, Herling &
Siewert 2019, Saugera 2019), or in youth language practices such as
French verlan, Spanish vesre, etc. (cf. Bedijs 2015). In these
practices, the exclusion of part of the addressees is a key element of
the communicative game played between the members of an in-group.
Moreover, it has been shown that literary texts can be based on secret
wordplay that is accessible to only part of the readership (cf. Bauer
2015). In this case, a successful decoding of the additional secret
message is particularly rewarding for initiated readers, whereas
uninitiated readers may simply miss part of the message without
perceiving a feeling of being excluded. Still other scenarios of
exclusion can be observed in language acquisition (including L1 and L2
settings), where participants can be excluded from wordplay due to a
lack of the linguistic knowledge required to decode the relevant
meanings involved. In pragmatic research, different types of
addressees have been distinguished depending on their active or
inactive role in communication, their being known and ratified by the
speaker, the acquaintance or absence of acquaintance between the
speaker and hearer, etc. (cf. Bell 1984, Dynel 2010, 2017), but these
distinctions have not been systematically explored for practices of
verbal humour and wordplay. Moreover, serious aspects of wordplay have
mostly remained backgrounded in previous research, with the focus most
often being on the speakers and hearers (or the producers and
recipients more generally) who participate in the game.
The aim of this workshop is thus to bring together these different
perspectives, and to highlight the social dimension of wordplay
communication involving different groups of participants.
We invite proposals for papers that reflect on serious aspects of
wordplay related to phenomena of exclusion in different languages,
cultures or historical epochs. Among others, the following aspects may
be addressed:
- the interplay of inclusion and exclusion in wordplay,
- the importance of in-group interaction and the existence of an
out-group not actively participating in the game and / or being the
target of wordplay,
- the pragmatic description of relevant groups of participants in
exclusive wordplay practices,
- the perspective of participants excluded from wordplay,
- the textual and discursive dimension of wordplay involving
exclusion, e.g., the question of whether wordplay and exclusion are
explicitly signalled or can be inferred from the context,
- the historical and cultural dimension of phenomena of exclusion in
wordplay, e.g., by presenting case studies on particular traditions of
wordplay, language games, text types or discourse traditions that
involve an exclusion of others.
Accepted papers will be presented at an online workshop and published
in a volume in the De Gruyter book series "The Dynamics of Wordplay".
The volume will be published open access without publication costs for
the authors.
Submission of abstracts and papers
Please send your abstract (in English, 400 words max. excluding
references, doc or pdf file) to esme.winter-froemel at uni-wuerzburg.de
by 7 March 2025. The abstracts should be preceded by a cover page
providing your author details and contact information. Please state
“abstract submission Wordplay and Exclusion” in the subject line of
your e-mail. The abstracts will undergo anonymous peer review. The
authors of accepted abstracts will then be invited to submit first
versions of full papers that will be discussed at a 2-day online
workshop and undergo a written reviewing process in parallel. The
workshop aims to focus on in-depth discussion and exchange on the
papers, and only short 5-minute-summaries of the papers will be
presented, allowing for 20-minute discussions for each paper.
Moreover, the first drafts of the papers will be distributed to the
participants before the workshop. In addition, further invited papers
will be presented at the workshop. The revised and final versions of
the papers are to be submitted after the workshop, integrating
feedback from reviewing and from the discussions at the workshop.
Important dates
07.03.2025: Submission of abstracts
14.03.2025: Feedback on abstracts sent to the authors
22.04.2025: Submission of first drafts of papers
30.05.–31.05.2025: Online workshop with 5-minute paper summaries + 20
minutes of discussion
20.06.2025: Submission of final versions of the papers
For more information, please visit the conference website.

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