36.3377, Confs: Communicating (with) Non-Humans. Animals and Machines as Interlocutors (Germany)

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Subject: 36.3377, Confs: Communicating (with) Non-Humans. Animals and Machines as Interlocutors (Germany)

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Date: 04-Nov-2025
From: Hannah Sawall [mtm at europa-uni.de]
Subject: Communicating (with) Non-Humans. Animals and Machines as Interlocutors


Communicating (with) Non-Humans. Animals and Machines as Interlocutors

Date: 11-Jun-2026 - 12-Jun-2026
Location: Frankfurt an der Oder, Germany
Contact Email: mtm at europa-uni.de
Meeting URL:
https://www.kuwi.europa-uni.de/de/professuren-mitarbeitende/sprachpraktiken-medienkulturen/communicating-nonhumans/index.html

Linguistic Field(s): Anthropological Linguistics; Applied Linguistics;
General Linguistics; Pragmatics

Submission Deadline: 31-Jan-2026

>From voice assistants and generative AI to the evolving relationships
between humans and their animal companions, language-based
communication with non-humans is becoming an increasingly common
feature of the everyday. In response, we are seeing a surge in
research from linguistics to philosophy to the social sciences,
investigating the meanings, quandaries, and realities of this new
communicative terrain. This conference aims to build a bridge between
the predominantly distinct fields of human–animal and human–machine
communication in order to jointly investigate the similarities and
differences in our communicative practices when languaging with
non-human others.
In human–animal communication, the so-called ‘animal turn’ in the
humanities and social sciences has led to a changing understanding of
animal actors in social interaction. No longer are they treated as
mere objects of communication (see e.g. Bergmann 1988), or addressees
(Huneke 2004); animals are instead interactional partners who must be
taken seriously (Peltola & Simonen 2024; Szczepek Reed & Lundesjö
Kvart 2025). While this turn has materialised unevenly—with primary
attention paid to dogs (e.g. Mondémé 2023) and cats (e.g. Harjunpää &
Szczepek Reed 2025)—it has ramifications for the study and
consideration of all animals (e.g. Cornips 2024).
Rapid changes are also being seen in the field of human–machine
interaction, propelled by advances in the linguistic and communicative
capabilities of new technologies. Examinations have been launched into
the theoretical potential of social robots as everyday companions for
humans (Hepp 2020; Pitsch 2023), the specific communication strategies
in interaction with voice user interfaces (Cohn et al. 2021; Reineke &
Helmer 2024; Beneteau et al. 2019), social and multilingual practices
in these interactions (Leblebici 2024; Hector 2023; Zhu et al. 2024;
Nikghalb & Cheng 2025), and evolving attitudes towards ‘speaking
machines’ such as Alexa or ChatGPT (Dynel 2023; Lehner 2023). Newer
LLM-based technology, under the umbrella term of generative AI, raises
questions about agency (Heaton et al. 2025), authority (Ferrario,
Facchini & Termine 2024; Gefen & Arinze 2023), and the boundaries of
language and conversation (Handman 2023; Hill, Randolph Ford &
Farreras 2015). The interactional analysis of these technologies is,
however, still in its infancy (Dai, Zhu & Chen 2025; Pütz & Esposito
2024).
Many aspects of human–machine and human–animal communication still
require investigation, particularly when it comes to the empirical
study of mundane everyday interaction, multimodality, and the changing
forms of engagement with ever-evolving language technologies. We
invite papers presenting original research (both empirical and
theoretical) on the interaction and communication between human and
non-human interlocutors, the role of non-humans as social actors, and
changing conceptualisations of language and communication in the
context of “talking” machines and animals.
Potential areas of interest concern (but are not limited to):
 - Language attitudes and ideologies regarding non-human interlocutors
and their linguistic capacity
 - Interaction with (companion) animals and communicative machines in
domestic, public or therapeutic environments
 - The use of and interaction with voice user interfaces and smart
technologies such as Amazon’s Alexa and Google home
 - Animal directed speech and “Animal Semiotic Code” (Mondémé 2018)
 - The use of and interaction with generative AI (e.g. ChatGPT,
Gemini)
 - Embodiment and multimodality in interaction with non-humans
 - Technologically mediated interactions between humans and animals
(e.g. Talking Buttons)
 - The construction and representation of human–non-human interaction
in social media
 - Strategies of addressing and naming non-human others
 - Linguistic similarities and differences between humans, animals,
and machines
 - Posthumanist approaches to communicating (with) non-humans
 - Critical investigations of power, in-/exclusion and inequality in
human–non-human interaction
 - Methodological challenges and strategies for collecting natural
interactional data between humans and non-humans
The conference is organized by the DFG-funded Emmy Noether research
group “Posthumanist linguistics? Communicative practices between
humans, animals, and machines” (team: Miriam Lind (PI), Marlén
Jacobshagen, Hannah Sawall). It will take place over two days on June
11th/12th at European University Viadrina in Frankfurt/Oder, Germany.
We invite abstract submissions (max. 300 words excluding references)
for papers (20 minutes presentation + 10 minutes discussion) to be
sent to mtm at europa-uni.de as a .pdf or .docx file. The deadline for
submissions is January 31st 2026. Notifications of acceptances will be
sent out by February 28th 2026. Feel free to contact us with any
questions and to inform us about potential support and accessibility
needs.
References:
Beneteau, Erin, Olivia K. Richards, Mingrui Zhang, Julie A. Kientz,
Jason Yip & Alexis Hiniker. 2019. Communication Breakdowns Between
Families and Alexa. In Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human
Factors in Computing Systems, 1–13. Glasgow Scotland Uk: ACM.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300473.
Bergmann, Jörg R. 1988. Haustiere als kommunikative Ressourcen.
Soziale Welt Sonderband 6 Kultur und Alltag. 299–312.
Cohn, Michelle, Kai-Hui Liang, Melina Sarian, Georgia Zellou & Zhou
Yu. 2021. Speech Rate Adjustments in Conversations With an Amazon
Alexa Socialbot. Frontiers in Communication 6. 671429.
https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2021.671429.
Cornips, Leonie. 2025. How (dairy) cows and humans intertwine
languaging practices: recurrent vocalizations are not the same. In
Sune Vork Steffensen, Martin Döring & Stephen Cowley (eds.), Language
as an ecological phenomenon, 29–54. Bloomsbury.Dai, David Wei, Hua Zhu
& Guanliang Chen. 2025. How does interaction with LLM powered chatbots
shape human understanding of culture? The need for Critical
Interactional Competence (CritIC). Annual Review of Applied
Linguistics 45. 28–49. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0267190525000054.
Dynel, Marta. 2023. Lessons in linguistics with ChatGPT:
Metapragmatics, metacommunication, metadiscourse and metalanguage in
human-AI interactions. Language & Communication 93. 107–124.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2023.09.002.
Ferrario, Andrea, Alessandro Facchini & Alberto Termine. 2024. Experts
or Authorities? The Strange Case of the Presumed Epistemic Superiority
of Artificial Intelligence Systems. Minds and Machines 34(3). 30.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11023-024-09681-1.
Gefen, David & Orakwue (Bay) Arinze. 2023. ChatGPT and usurping
academic authority. Journal of Information Technology Case and
Application Research. Routledge 25(1). 3– 9.
https://doi.org/10.1080/15228053.2023.2186629.
Handman, Courtney. 2023. Language at the Limits of the Human: Deceit,
Invention, and the Specter of the Unshared Symbol. Comparative Studies
in Society and History 65(4). 726–750.
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0010417523000221.
Harjunpää, Katariina & Beatrice Szczepek Reed. 2025. Prosodic matching
beyond humans: On the interactional basis of “cat-directed” talk.
Language & Communication 103. 65–85.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2025.04.007. Heaton, Dan, Elena
Nichele, Jeremie Clos & Joel E. Fischer. 2025. “ChatGPT says no”:
agency, trust, and blame in Twitter discourses after the launch of
ChatGPT. AI and Ethics 5(1). 653–675.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s43681-023-00414-1.
Hector, Tim. 2023. Smart Speaker in der Praxis. Methodologische
Überlegungen zur medienlinguistischen Erforschung stationärer
Sprachassistenzsysteme. Sprache und Literatur 51(2). 197–229.
https://doi.org/10.30965/25890859-05002021.
Hepp, Andreas. 2020. Artificial companions, social bots and work bots:
communicative robots as research objects of media and communication
studies. Media, Culture & Society 42(7–8). 1410–1426.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443720916412.
Hill, Jennifer, W. Randolph Ford & Ingrid G. Farreras. 2015. Real
conversations with artificial intelligence: A comparison between
human–human online conversations and human– chatbot conversations.
Computers in Human Behavior 49. 245–250.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.02.026.
Huneke, Hans W. 2004. Sprechen zu Tieren: Formen und Funktionen
tiergerichteten Sprechens. München: Iudicium.
Leblebici, Didem. 2024. “You are Apple, why are you speaking to me in
Turkish?”: the role of English in voice assistant interactions.
Multilingua. De Gruyter Mouton 43(4). 455–485.
https://doi.org/10.1515/multi-2023-0072.
Lehner, Sabine. 2023. Kommunikationsideologien in der
Mensch-Maschinen-Interaktion. Eine diskursanalytische Vorstudie zur
deutschsprachigen Medienberichterstattung über Sprachtechnologien.
https://www.academia.edu/103610050/Kommunikationsideologien_in_der_Mensch_Maschinen_Interaktion_Eine_diskursanalytische_Vorstudie_zur_deutschsprachigen_Medienberichterstattung_%C3%BCber_Sprachtechnologien.
(10 October, 2025).
Mondémé, Chloé. 2018. How do we talk to animals? Modes and pragmatic
effects of communication with pets. Langage et société. Éditions de la
Maison des sciences de l’homme 163(1). 77–99.
Mondémé, Chloé. 2023. Sequence organization in human–animal
interaction. An exploration of two canonical sequences. Journal of
Pragmatics 214. 73–88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2023.06.006.
Nikghalb, Mohammad Ronagh & Jinghui Cheng. 2025. Interrogating AI:
Characterizing Emergent Playful Interactions with ChatGPT. Proceedings
of the ACM on Human- Computer Interaction 9(2). 1–23.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3711015.
Peltola, Rea & Mika Simonen. 2024. Towards interspecies pragmatics:
Language use and embodied interaction in human-animal activities,
encounters, and narratives. Journal of Pragmatics 220. 15–19.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2023.11.013.
Pitsch, Karola. 2023. Mensch-Roboter-Interaktion als
Forschungsinstrument der Interaktionalen Linguistik. In Matthias
Meiler & Martin Siefkes (eds.), Linguistische Methodenreflexion im
Aufbruch, 119–152. De Gruyter.
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111043616-005.
Pütz, Ole & Elena Esposito. 2024. Performance without understanding:
How ChatGPT relies on humans to repair conversational trouble.
Discourse & Communication 18(6). 859–868.
https://doi.org/10.1177/17504813241271492.
Reineke, Silke & Henrike Helmer. 2024. User practices in dealing with
trouble in interactions with virtual assistants in German: Repeating,
altering and insisting. Discourse & Communication 18(6).942 953.
https://doi.org/10.1177/17504813241271494.
Szczepek Reed, Beatrice & Susanne Lundesjö Kvart. 2025. The Role of
Horses as Instructional and Diagnostic Partners in Riding Lessons.
Animals 15(10). 1418. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani15101418.
Zhu, Gaoxia, Vidya Sudarshan, Jason Fok Kow & Yew Soon Ong. 2024.
Human-Generative AI Collaborative Problem Solving Who Leads and How
Students Perceive the Interactions. arXiv.
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2405.13048.



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