37.11, Confs: 6th Conference of the International Association for Cognitive Semiotics (Italy)

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-37-11. Mon Jan 05 2026. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 37.11, Confs: 6th Conference of the International Association for Cognitive Semiotics (Italy)

Moderator: Steven Moran (linguist at linguistlist.org)
Managing Editor: Valeriia Vyshnevetska
Team: Helen Aristar-Dry, Mara Baccaro, Daniel Swanson
Jobs: jobs at linguistlist.org | Conferences: callconf at linguistlist.org | Pubs: pubs at linguistlist.org

Homepage: http://linguistlist.org

Editor for this issue: Valeriia Vyshnevetska <valeriia at linguistlist.org>

================================================================


Date: 24-Dec-2025
From: Jamin Pelkey [jpelkey at torontomu.ca]
Subject: 6th Conference of the International Association for Cognitive Semiotics


6th Conference of the International Association for Cognitive
Semiotics
Short Title: IACS6
Theme: (In)determinacy of Meaning

Date: 04-Jun-2026 - 06-Jun-2026
Location: Rome, Italy
Contact: Filomena Diodato
Contact Email: labsil at uniroma1.it
Meeting URL:
https://storiaideelinguistiche.web.uniroma1.it/index.php/it/iacs-6-sixth-conference-international-association-cognitive-semiotics

Linguistic Field(s): Cognitive Science; Philosophy of Language;
Pragmatics; Psycholinguistics; Semantics

Submission Deadline: 30-Jan-2026

We are delighted to announce the Sixth Conference of the International
Association for Cognitive Semiotics (IACS-6), hosted by Sapienza
University of Rome from June 4 to 6, 2026.
E-mail: labsil at uniroma1.it
Conference Theme: (In)determinacy of Meaning
Cognitive semiotics, repeatedly reimagined over recent decades,
responds to a longstanding demand within both philosophical-linguistic
and semiotic traditions: the need to investigate the semiotic
mediation of cognition—both phylogenetically and
ontogenetically—through the interaction between bodily and cognitive
capacities and socio-culturally transmitted sign systems. In this
sense, cognitive semiotics inherits the imperative to move beyond
conceiving semiotics merely as a theory of signs, toward the
development of a genuinely interdisciplinary—or more precisely,
transdisciplinary—theory of meaning-making.
As a perspective that operates between, across, and beyond traditional
disciplinary boundaries, cognitive semiotics draws on theoretical and
methodological contributions from semiotics, (cognitive) linguistics,
and cognitive science, as well as from anthropology, psychology, and
the broader human sciences. It seeks to illuminate meaning in language
and other sign vehicles as rooted in perception and embodied action.
Approaching meaning-making as an emergent process of biocultural
evolution—often, though not exclusively, informed by Husserlian
phenomenology—this field addresses both human as well as non-human
semiosis, investigating their similarities and differences.
In dialogue with the history of semiotic and linguistic thought, as
well as with current paradigms such as biosemiotics, cultural
semiotics, and enactivism, cognitive semiotics maintains a distinctive
identity. This is marked by its sensitivity to the fragmentation of
worldviews, its resistance to reductionism and anti-humanism, and its
sustained effort to understand meaning-making across multiple scales
of complexity—spanning types of mind, memory, and communicative
systems.
The IACS-6 Conference is dedicated to the theme of the (in)determinacy
of meaning — that is, the constitutive openness, fluidity, and
irreducible vagueness of meaning-making processes, in the broad sense,
but presupposing subjectivity, or qualitative experience. This theme
foregrounds not only the dynamic interplay between structured,
codified sign systems and the creative, often unpredictable practices
that continually reshape them, but also the fundamental indeterminacy
at the heart of semiosis—where meaning unfolds through the dialectic
of subjective and intersubjective experience, grounded in lived
perception, embodied engagement, and historical situatedness.
We invite proposals that explore how meaning emerges in the tension
between nature and culture, through intersubjective practices of
accumulation, sedimentation, and transformation—a core concern of the
Roman School of Linguistics. Plenary speakers and all participants are
warmly encouraged to consider how their research intersects with this
theme, exploring the shifting boundaries, tensions, and openings that
shape the experience of meaning across lifeworlds (Lebenswelt).
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
 - Meaning-making processes between nature and culture
 - Consciousness and semiosis: agency, subjectivity, and
intersubjectivity
 - The sign function and the dynamics of signification
 - Philosophical perspectives on cognition, perception, and semiosis
 - Theoretical intersections among cognitive semiotics, enactivism,
biosemiotics and related fields
 - Phenomenology, embodiment, and sensory-kinesthetic feeling
 - Synesthesia from body to language
 - Phylogenetic and ontogenetic development of semiosis
 - Cognition and categorization from cognitive linguistics to
cognitive semiotics
 - Human and non-human semiosis
 - Epistemology, meaning, and truth
 - Metaphoric and metonymic mechanisms in meaning construction
 - Narrativity and semiotic structures of narrative discourse
 - Universal and culture-specific dimensions of semiosis
 - Interrelations between semiosis, language, and memory
 - Mimesis, protolanguage, gestures and verbal language
 - Semiotic ideologies and meaning-making processes in the era of the
Anthropocene
 - From writing systems to AI: the evolution of semiotic technologies
Confirmed Plenary speakers:
 - Paul Cobley (Middlesex University)
 - Nara M. Figueiredo (Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Brasil)
 - Massimo Leone (University of Turin)
 - Alexandra Mouratidou (Lund University)
 - Todd Oakley (Case Western Reserve University)
Roundtable: What is meaning-making, and can we find a consensus?
Memorial Roundtable: The Cognitive Semiotic Legacies of Irene
Mittelberg and Kristian Tylén
Extra event: Presentation of Göran Sonesson’s Posthumous Book
Key Deadlines & Submission Guidelines
 - 15 January 2026– Deadline for theme session proposals
Theme sessions should include a general abstract (max 300 words)
outlining the session's rationale and individual abstracts (max 500
words each) for up to 6 participants. All abstracts must be submitted
together as part of a single proposal.
 - 30 January 2026 – Deadline for individual abstract submissions
Individual abstracts should be no longer than 500 words, clearly
stating the research question, theoretical framework, methodology, and
main conclusions.
All submissions must be in English and will be subject to peer review
by the scientific committee.
Each participant may submit only one theme-session proposal and up to
two first-author or sole-authored papers. Co-authored proposals are
allowed without restrictions.
Link for submissions:
https://easyabs.linguistlist.org/conference/IACS6/
Please do not send submissions to the EasyChair link, as it has been
removed!
 - 30 March 2026: Notification of acceptance
Organizing Committee: Filomena Diodato (chair), Marina De Palo, Marco
Mazzeo, Ilaria Tani
Secretariat: Claudia Cicerchia, Sara Dellino, Marco Maurizi, Edoardo
Moré, Federica Ruggiero, Francesco Verde



------------------------------------------------------------------------------

********************** LINGUIST List Support ***********************
Please consider donating to the Linguist List, a U.S. 501(c)(3) not for profit organization:

https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=87C2AXTVC4PP8

LINGUIST List is supported by the following publishers:

Bloomsbury Publishing http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/

Cambridge University Press http://www.cambridge.org/linguistics

Cascadilla Press http://www.cascadilla.com/

De Gruyter Brill https://www.degruyterbrill.com/?changeLang=en

Edinburgh University Press http://www.edinburghuniversitypress.com

John Benjamins http://www.benjamins.com/

Language Science Press http://langsci-press.org

Lincom GmbH https://lincom-shop.eu/

MIT Press http://mitpress.mit.edu/

Multilingual Matters http://www.multilingual-matters.com/

Narr Francke Attempto Verlag GmbH + Co. KG http://www.narr.de/

Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics / Landelijke (LOT) http://www.lotpublications.nl/

Peter Lang AG http://www.peterlang.com


----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-37-11
----------------------------------------------------------