37.2553, Confs: Panel at IPC20 - The Pragmatics of Online Influence: Persuasion and Authority in Online Coaching Discourses (Finland)

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-37-2553. Tue Aug 04 2026. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 37.2553, Confs: Panel at IPC20 - The Pragmatics of Online Influence: Persuasion and Authority in Online Coaching Discourses (Finland)

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Date: 03-Aug-2026
From: Sofia Rüdiger [sofia.ruediger at fu-berlin.de]
Subject: Panel at IPC20 - The Pragmatics of Online Influence: Persuasion and Authority in Online Coaching Discourses


Panel at IPC20 - The Pragmatics of Online Influence: Persuasion and
Authority in Online Coaching Discourses
Short Title: IPC20

Date: 27-Jun-2027 - 02-Jul-2027
Location: Helsinki, Finland
Meeting URL: https://pragmatics.international/page/CfP2027

Linguistic Field(s): Applied Linguistics; Discourse Analysis;
Pragmatics

Submission Deadline: 15-Oct-2026

>From the perspective of pragmatics, coaching can be understood as a
communication-based, co-constructed discourse genre in which coach and
client jointly build meanings, goals, and courses of action turn by
turn (see Fleischhacker & Graf 2023). Rather than merely transmitting
information, coaching works through persuasion: it relies on speech
acts such as advising, evaluating, goal-setting, while also managing
uptake and creating an expert identity for the coach (see Weinzinger
2016, Dayter & Rüdiger 2022). Both existing work on seduction coaching
(Dayter & Rüdiger 2019) and on financial influencers (Biri 2025) shows
how coaching may be built through terminology-heavy language,
narrative framing, and interactional strategies resembling sales
discourse including asymmetries of conversational power.
We invite panel contributions addressing persuasion and authority in
online coaching contexts. This encompasses, for example, one-to-one
sessions, courses, and subscription-based coaching (e.g., dating
coaches and membership-based financial coaching communities), where
commercially-driven authority and expertise are negotiated through
situated pragmatic practices. We are also interested in discourses
produced by influencers in the realm of health, finance, dating, and
lifestyle on various social media platforms such as TikTok, YouTube,
Instagram, Facebook, etc.
We are particularly interested in empirical studies of persuasive
strategies, the construction of authority, and the performance of
expert personae. We also invite contributions that critically examine
problematic or harmful forms of persuasion, including malicious
influence and bad-faith sales practices operating under the guise of
coaching. The aim of this panel is to open up discussion of how
persuasive strategies are enacted within ‘coaching’ discourses and to
relate these practices to linguistic understandings of authority and
expertise.
The panel consists of both full (20+10 minutes) and work-in-progress
(10+5 minutes) slots; please indicate your format choice in the
abstract. Abstracts (no more than 500 words) need to be submitted via
the conference website (https://ipra2027.exordo.com/) by 15 October
2026. Make sure to select the panel “The Pragmatics of Online
Influence” during the submission process.
Further information on submitting abstracts can be found in the IPC20
Call for Papers (https://pragmatics.international/page/CfP2027). Note
that an active IPrA membership is required to submit an abstract. If
you have further questions regarding the panel, feel free to email us
directly.
This panel will be part of the 20th International Pragmatics
Conference (IPrA2027, IPC20). It is organized by Daria Dayter (Tampere
University) and Sofia Rüdiger (Freie Universität Berlin).



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