37.2477, Confs: Panel at IPC20 - Solitude Speech: Transcending the Boundaries of Pragmatics (Finland)

Fri Jul 24 12:05:02 UTC 2026

LINGUIST List: Vol-37-2477. Fri Jul 24 2026. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 37.2477, Confs: Panel at IPC20 - Solitude Speech: Transcending the Boundaries of Pragmatics (Finland)

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Date: 24-Jul-2026
From: Mitsuko Narita Izutsu [mizutsu at fujijoshi.ac.jp]
Subject: Panel at IPC20 - Solitude Speech: Transcending the Boundaries of Pragmatics

Panel at IPC20 - Solitude Speech: Transcending the Boundaries of
Pragmatics

Date: 27-Jun-2027 - 02-Jul-2027
Location: Helsinki, Finland
Contact: Mitsuko Narita Izutsu
Contact Email: mizutsu at fujijoshi.ac.jp
Meeting URL: https://pragmatics.international/page/IPC20Helsinki

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

Submission Deadline: 15-Oct-2026

We are pleased to invite submissions for the panel outlined below.
Pragmatics is defined by the International Pragmatics Association—now
celebrating its 20th conference—as the “the science of language use,
in its widest interdisciplinary sense as a functional (i.e. cognitive,
social, and cultural) perspective on language and communication” (IPrA
webpage, our italics). This reflects the scholarly consensus that
pragmatics is a study of communication because “communication is what
language is all about” (Searle 1972). It is beyond doubt that
interaction between two or more different speakers has been a central
focus of theories and notions developed in pragmatics (e.g., speech
acts, politeness, implicatures) and represents the foundation of
conversation analysis and interactional linguistics.
However, language is not only used for interpersonal communication. We
also use language when talking to ourselves. Language is “a system for
expression of thought” (Chomsky 1975: 22) or “tools of thought”
(Vygotsky [1934]1986: 94). We speak even in the physical absence of an
addressee.
The aim of this panel is to explore the following agenda concerning
solitude speech (self-talk or private speech).
1.      How does pragmatic (or linguistic) research contribute to the
understanding of solitude speech (self-talk or private speech)?
2.      How does research on solitude speech (self-talk or private
speech) contribute to improvements or refinements of existing theories
and notions in pragmatics (speech acts, politeness, implicatures,
etc.)?
The first item is a fundamental imperative for linguists. Although
solitude speech (self-talk or private speech) is a matter of language,
it has been mainly studied in psychology, where linguistic facts have
often been marginalized in favor of statistical analysis and trend
observation. However, recent linguistic inquiries into solitude speech
(self-talk) (e.g., Holmberg 2010, Krifka 2023, Wiltschko 2025, Izutsu
& Izutsu 2025a) have revealed that lexico-grammatical
elements—including self-referential pronouns, reporting verbs,
sentence-final particles, and interjections—exhibit diverse
manifestations across several dimensions: language (type), type of
solitude speech (e.g., expressive, self-regulatory, self-directed,
displayed), mode of speech (conversation, solitude speech), and
others. It has also been demonstrated that the concept of adjacency
pairs is useful to identify the dialogic nature of solitude speech
(Izutsu & Izutsu 2025b).
The second agenda item represents an important task to be undertaken
by researchers in pragmatics. Previous theoretical frameworks in
pragmatics have been traditionally anchored by the conception of
speaker-addressee interaction. However, we can find many cases where
solitude speakers perform directive speech acts like “Wait” and “Don’t
give up” (Latinjak & Hatzigeorgiadis 2020, Izutsu & Izutsu 2025b) or
commissive speech acts like “I’ll do it tomorrow.” How can
conventional theories of pragmatics accommodate these linguistic data
produced when speakers are talking to themselves? Are there any speech
acts that never occur in solitude speech? Furthermore, the physical
absence of an addressee necessitates a reformulation of frameworks
concerning demonstrative reference, social deixis, and information
status—concepts traditionally analyzed in relation to the addressee’s
knowledge state. Japanese researchers (Kuroda [1979]1992, Hasegawa
2007) attempt to incorporate solitude speech into their analyses of
demonstratives, but comparable research needs to be extended to
different languages and more diverse linguistic domains.
We welcome contributions concerning solitude speech (self-talk or
private speech), regardless of language types, (non)verbal phenomena,
methodological frameworks, and even academic disciplines.
Interested researchers are invited to submit an abstract (250-500
words) through the conference website
(https://pragmatics.international/page/CfP2027) by 15 October, 2026.
When submitting the abstract, please ensure that you select the panel
"Solitude speech: Transcending the boundaries of pragmatics."
For inquiries concerning this panel, contact the panel organizers:
Mitsuko Narita Izutsu (mizutsu at fujijoshi.ac.jp) and Katsunobu Izutsu
(idutsu at gmail.com).
References:
Chomsky, N. 1975. Reflections on Language. New York: Pantheon Books.
Hasegawa, Y. 2007. Demonstratives in soliloquial Japanese. CLS 43:
94–107.
Holmberg, A. 2010. Referring to yourself in self-talk. In C. J. W.
Zwart & M. de Vries (eds.) Structure Preserved: Studies in Syntax for
Jan Koster, 185–192. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Izutsu, M. N. & K. Izutsu. 2025a. Solitude speech across languages and
cultures [Special issue]. The International Journal of Language and
Culture 12(1).
Izutsu, M. N. & K. Izutsu. 2025b. Speaking while thinking: How
dialogic is Japanese solitude speech? International Journal of
Language and Culture 12(1): 20–54.
Krifka, M. 2023. Linguistik des Selbstgesprächs, mit Evidenz aus
Schnitzlers „Leutnant Gustl.‟ Grazer Linguistische Studien 94:
343–365.
Kuroda, S. [1979]1992. (Ko), so, a-ni tsuite. In S. Kinsui & Y. Takubo
(eds.) Shijishi, 91–104. Tokyo: Hituzi.
Latinjak, A. T. & A. Hatzigeorgiadis. 2020. Self-talk in Sport. New
York and London: Routledge.
Searle, John R. 1972. A special supplement: Chomsky’s revolution in
linguistics. New York Review of Books 18(12) (June 29).
Vygotsky, L. [1934]1986. Thought and Language. trans. by E. Hanfmann &
G. Vakar, rev. & ed. by A. Kozulin. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT
Press.
Wiltschko, M. 2025. The grammar of self-talk: What different models of
talking reveal about language. Theoretical Linguistics 51(3–4): 1–63.

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