36.2934, Confs: 15th Historical Sociolinguistics Network Conference (Austria)

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-36-2934. Wed Oct 01 2025. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 36.2934, Confs: 15th Historical Sociolinguistics Network Conference (Austria)

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Date: 01-Oct-2025
From: Imke Mendoza [imke.mendoza at plus.ac.at]
Subject: 15th Historical Sociolinguistics Network Conference


15th Historical Sociolinguistics Network Conference
Short Title: HiSoN 2026
Theme: Spoken and written discourse in historical sources

Date: 28-Sep-2026 - 30-Sep-2026
Location: Salzburg, Austria
Contact Email: Hison2026 at plus.ac.at
Meeting URL: https://hison2026.com

Linguistic Field(s): Anthropological Linguistics; Historical
Linguistics; Pragmatics; Sociolinguistics; Text/Corpus Linguistics

Submission Deadline: 15-Dec-2025

The 15th Historical Sociolinguistics Network (HiSoN) Conference will
take place at the University of Salzburg (Austria) from 28 – 30
September 2026.
Confirmed plenary speakers are:
Prof Joseph Salmons (University of Wisconsin, Madison, US)
Prof Michał Głuszkowski (Toruń University, Poland)
Prof Sybille Große (Heidelberg University, Germany)
The 2026 conference theme is "Spoken and written discourse in
historical sources".
Historical sociolinguistics naturally draws its data mainly from
sources that have been transmitted in handwriting or print.
Nevertheless, since its very beginning, historical sociolinguistics
has been concerned with reconstructing and investigating not only
written but also spoken discourse (cf. Schneider 2013). This is
achieved by taking into account historical sources that, for various
reasons, are characterised by a particular proximity to spoken
language, be they speech-based (e.g. interrogation records, minutes of
parliamentary sessions), speech-purposed (e.g. sermons, drama texts)
or speech-like sources (e.g. private correspondence, diaries) (cf.
Culpeper & Kytö 2010).
At the same time, written sources lacking a close link with spoken
language, and especially printed texts, have long been recognised as
crucial for standardisation processes, a key topic in historical
sociolinguistics, and can be shown to evince forms of change unrelated
to change in spoken language. When investigating language variation
and change in the past, it has proven useful for historical
sociolinguistics to abstract away from the binary distinction between
written and spoken code and to focus on the positioning of historical
sources on a conceptual continuum between informality and formality or
between ‘language of immediacy’ and ‘language of distance’ (Koch &
Oesterreicher 1985/2012).
This broadening of perspective has also led to an appreciation of
formerly neglected or even ignored historical sources for research
into fields such as historical language variation and change,
sociolinguistics, sociopragmatics, social dialectology, or discourse
analysis. In addition, historical sociolinguistics benefits from
advances in computer technology, which facilitate the creation,
annotation and (partially) automated analysis of new text corpora – be
they oriented towards linguistic or metalinguistic evidence. There has
probably never been a better time to explore the entire spectrum of
spoken and written discourse in historical sources. We therefore
invite proposals on this theme.
Topics that fall within the scope of this theme include but are not
limited to:
 - Orality and writtenness / language of immediacy and language of
distance
 - Informal and formal texts from the past
 - Speech-based, speech-purposed and speech-like historical sources
 - Standardisation of spoken and written language
 - Language history from above and from below
 - Historical pragmatics and discourse analysis
 - Historical text types, registers, genres and domains
 - Discourse traditions
 - Formulaic language
 - Metalinguistic discourse(s)
 - Positioning, indexicality, enregisterment
 - Multilingualism and code-switching
 - Multimodality
 - Methodological advances (corpus building, transcription of
historical sources, (semi-)automated analyses etc.)
 - Experienced and inexperienced writers in language history
All papers need to include historical as well as sociolinguistic
aspects. We welcome abstracts for two different formats (individual
papers and thematic panels):
Individual papers are formal presentations on original research by one
or more authors, who will be allotted 30-minute slots at the
conference (20 minutes for presentation plus 10 minutes for
discussion). Abstracts for individual paper presentations must not
exceed 500 words (incl. title and references).
Thematic panels, roundtables or workshops should follow the 30-minute
structure of the conference. We strongly prefer shorter, focused
events (e.g. an introductory paper, 3–4 papers by different
contributors, and a final discussion). Panel convenors are expected to
invite contributors and discussants in advance and submit one full
proposal. This proposal includes the overall aims and rationale of the
event (max. 500 words) as well as the names, affiliations, and short
abstracts of 200–300 words for each contribution (incl. introductory
paper and/or final discussion). Please note that panel convenors take
active responsibility for the quality of all contributions and are
expected to guide their invited participants through the formal
process as well as to chair the panel.
Abstract Submission:
Abstracts should be submitted through EasyAbs maintained by the
LINGUIST List. Please ensure that the abstract is properly anonymised
in order to allow for blind review.
The call opens on 1 October 2025.
Please submit your abstract by 15 December 2025.
Notification of acceptance by 15 March 2026.



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