37.2647, Confs: Panel at IPC20 - Evaluation in Interaction: Constructing Referents and Stances (Finland)

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-37-2647. Wed Aug 12 2026. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 37.2647, Confs: Panel at IPC20 - Evaluation in Interaction: Constructing Referents and Stances (Finland)

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Date: 11-Aug-2026
From: Elena Battaglia [elena.battaglia8 at unibo.it]
Subject: Panel at IPC20 - Evaluation in Interaction: Constructing Referents and Stances


Panel at IPC20 - Evaluation in Interaction: Constructing Referents and
Stances
Short Title: IPC20

Date: 27-Jun-2027 - 02-Jul-2027
Location: Helsinki, Finland
Contact: Elena Battaglia
Contact Email: elena.battaglia8 at unibo.it
Meeting URL:
https://pragmatics.international/general/custom.asp?page=CfP2027

Linguistic Field(s): Applied Linguistics; Pragmatics; Semantics;
Text/Corpus Linguistics; Typology

Submission Deadline: 15-Oct-2026

Background:
This workshop aims to advance our understanding of evaluation as a
fundamental dimension of human interaction, addressing how it is
expressed, collaboratively constructed, and contributes to discourse
organization.
We define evaluation as a modal attitude whereby speakers assess
entities and states of affairs in terms of value rather than
possibility and necessity (Nuyts 2025). Occasionally discussed as
appreciative modality, this domain has received comparatively little
attention within modality studies.
As research has increasingly shown that epistemic meanings are not
merely internal states but are intersubjective and publicly negotiated
(Pietrandrea 2018), we advocate for a similar paradigm shift in the
study of evaluative meanings. Conversation-analytic research has
indeed shown that evaluation routinely occurs in assessment pairs,
sequence closure, and storytelling feedback as part of stance-taking.
We welcome papers based on spoken data from diverse languages, further
questioning the interactional foundation of evaluation and its
grammar. The workshop will revolve around three foci.
1) Linguistic strategies for evaluation.
Beyond well-studied lexical and morphological means (Grandi &
Körtvélyessy 2015), evaluation is also associated to recurrent
syntactic (co-)constructions, like right-dislocation (c’est joli ça,
De Stefani & Horlacher 2017:20). Yet, a systematic account of
evaluative resources is still lacking.
 - What linguistic constructions encode evaluative meanings?
 - Are there emerging constructions gravitating towards (or away from)
evaluative functions (e.g., response particles like Italian va bene
‘that’s good’)?
2) Patterns of evaluation in interaction.
Since evaluation necessarily involves an object of evaluation,
understanding evaluative meanings also requires understanding how
participants collaboratively construct what is made assessable in the
first place (Mauri et al. 2021).
 - How do participants construct an assessable referent and negotiate
their local understanding of an evaluative meaning?
 - How do evaluation and reference construction interact in the
unfolding of social action?
3) Towards an “evaluative engine”.
Parallel to the “epistemic engine” (Heritage 2012), assessment pairs
appear to be driven by “symmetry of commitment” (Thompson &
Couper-Kuhlen 2015:14), suggesting that the pursuit of a shared
evaluative stance may shape the development of sequences.
 - What is the role of evaluation in the organization of interaction?
 - To what extent does evaluation motivate reference construction and
interactional trajectories, rather than simply accompanying them?
References:
De Stefani & Horlacher (2017). Une étude interactionnelle de la
grammaire: la dislocation à droite évaluative dans la
parole-en-interaction. Revue française de linguistique appliquée,
XXII(2),15–32.
Grandi & Körtvélyessy (eds.) (2015). Edinburgh handbook of evaluative
morphology. Edinburgh University Press.
Heritage (2012). The epistemic engine: Sequence organization and
territories of knowledge. Research on Language and Social Interaction,
45(1),30–52.
Mauri, Goria, Fiorentini (eds.) (2021). Building Categories in
Interaction: Linguistic resources at work, John Benjamins.
Nuyts (2025). Modality in Mind. CUP.
Pietrandrea (2018). Epistemic constructions at work: A corpus study on
spoken Italian dialogues. Journal of Pragmatics, 128,61–81.
Thompson, Fox & Couper-Kuhlen (2015). Grammar in everyday talk:
Building responsive actions. CUP



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