37.2646, Confs: Panel at IPC20: Pragmatic Borrowing in Different Language Settings (Finland)

Wed Aug 12 08:05:01 UTC 2026

LINGUIST List: Vol-37-2646. Wed Aug 12 2026. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 37.2646, Confs: Panel at IPC20: Pragmatic Borrowing in Different Language Settings (Finland)

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Date: 11-Aug-2026
From: Helga Hilmisdottir [helgahi at hi.is]
Subject: Panel at IPC20: Pragmatic Borrowing in Different Language Settings

Panel at IPC20: Pragmatic Borrowing in Different Language Settings
Short Title: IPC20

Date: 27-Jun-2027 - 02-Jul-2027
Location: Helsinki, Finland
Contact: Helga Hilmisdottir
Contact Email: helgahi at hi.is
Meeting URL: https://pragmatics.international/page/IPC20Helsinki

Linguistic Field(s): Discourse Analysis; Pragmatics; Sociolinguistics

Submission Deadline: 15-Oct-2026

We would like to draw your attention to a panel on pragmatic borrowing
which will be a part of the 20th International Pragmatics Conference.
The conference will take place in Helsinki, Finland, June 27- July 2,
2027 in Helsinki. Please, submit a 250-500 words abstract via the IPrA
conference website (https://ipra2027.exordo.com/) by October 15th.
When you submit your abstract, remember to Select 'Pragmatic borrowing
in different language settings'.
The term pragmatic borrowing was introduced by Andersen (2014) as an
umbrella term for words and phrases borrowed from a source language
into a recipient language that do not add to the propositional content
of an utterance, but, instead, function as discourse structuring
devices or indexes of speakers’ attitudes and styles. Thus, pragmatic
borrowing includes the incorporation of items that have been
categorized as, for example, response particles (yes), discourse
markers (anyway), address terms (dude), swearwords (what the fuck),
and apologies (sorry). In addition to direct borrowing of single words
and phrases, speakers may also use indirect borrowing or calques,
which are word-for-word translations of pragmatic items, such as the
Icelandic agreement token hundrað prósent  ‘hundred procent’, and
non-lexical features such as specific prosodic patterns and gestures.
While much of the previous work on pragmatic borrowings has focused on
English as the source language and the languages of Europe as
receiving languages, in this panel we actively seek researchers from
other language contact settings.
Previous studies show that pragmatic borrowings often adapt to the new
language with respect to form and/or function (Betz et al 2021;
Hilmisdóttir, Huhtamäki & Karlsson 2025), and that they can be used to
index social and cultural values (Peterson 2017, 2026). In addition,
the borrowed items have a different status and create different
connotations in the borrowing language than in the source language
(see Beers Fägersten 2014 on the use of fuck in Swedish). That is, the
borrowed forms can be said to take on a new life and functions in the
receiving language.
In this panel, we welcome contributions on a variety of topics that
shed a light on the notion of pragmatic borrowings from English and
other source languages. We welcome studies on talk-in-interaction,
including computer mediated discourse. Examples include corpus
analyses, investigations of prosody of pragmatic borrowings,
interactional functions, stylistic meaning and stance, and
orthographic and phonological adaptation (see Hilmisdóttir & Peterson
2023).
References:
Andersen, Gisle. 2014. Pragmatic borrowing. Journal of Pragmatics 67.
17–33.
Beers Fägersten, Kristy. 2014. The use of English swear words in
Swedish media. In Rathje, Marianne (ed.), Swearing in the Nordic
countries (Sprognævnets Konferenceserie 2), 63–81. Copenhagen: Danish
Language Council.
Betz, Emma, Deppermann, Arnulf, Mondada, Lorenza & Sorjonen,
Marja-Leena. 2021. OKAY across languages: Toward a comparative
approach to its use in talk-in-interaction (Studies in Language and
Social Interaction 34). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Hilmisdóttir, Helga and Elizabeth Peterson. 2024. Language contact and
language change: Impact on the languages of the Nordic countries. In
E. Peterson and K. Beers Fägersten (eds.) English in the Nordic
Countries: Connections, Tensions, and Everyday Realities. New
York/Abingdon: Routledge
Hilmisdóttir, Helga, Martina Huhtamäki & Susanna Karlsson. 2025.
Introduction: Pragmatic borrowing from English. Nordic Journal of
Linguistics 48(2), 113–115.
Peterson, Elizabeth. 2017. The nativization of pragmatic borrowings in
remote language contact situations. Journal of Pragmatics 113,
116–126.
Peterson, Elizabeth. 2026. Indirect Language Contact and Pragmatic
Borrowing. In Ledgeway et al. (eds.): The Wiley Blackwell Companion to
Diachronic and Historical Linguistics. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.
Organizers:
Helga Hilmisdóttir, The Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies
(helga.hilmisdottir at arnastofnun.is)
Elizabeth Peterson, University of Jyväskylä
(Elizabeth.I.Peterson at jyv.fi)

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