37.1142, Confs: Multimodal Aspects of Silence, Noise and the Signal (Germany)

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-37-1142. Thu Mar 19 2026. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 37.1142, Confs: Multimodal Aspects of Silence, Noise and the Signal (Germany)

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Date: 18-Mar-2026
From: Bettina Braun [bettina.braun at uni-konstanz.de]
Subject: Multimodal Aspects of Silence, Noise and the Signal


Multimodal Aspects of Silence, Noise and the Signal

Date: 01-Dec-2026 - 03-Dec-2026
Location: Konstanz, Germany

Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics

Submission Deadline: 20-Sep-2026

Human communication is inherently multimodal. In the interdisciplinary
CRC 1760 “Silence, Noise and the Signal”, we are interested in
communicative aspects that are not easily captured by words and their
syntactic combinations. By silence we refer to instances of
communication in which there is no signifié (signified), but something
meaningful is contributed; by noise, we refer to cases in which there
is more than one signifier or where the signified itself is ambiguous.
Conceiving of communication in a broad sense, we study the links
between speech and facial expressions, body movements, gestures, and
verbal prosody. We aim to bring together researchers who work on
multimodal interactions, including methodological work, on issues that
can contribute to our understanding of silence and noise more
generally.
Example questions include (but are not limited to)
- What kind of meanings does the visual channel (facial expressions,
body movements, posture) contribute?
- What is the meaning layer to which gestural content is contributed
(assertion, CI vs. presupposition)
- What is the actual content of facial expressions and gestures,
distinguishing different strengths (e.g. "yes", mere consent, "I'm
listening") and how does this visual modality compare to the auditory
modality?
- How do the visual and auditory modalities interact with each other
regarding the contribution of meaning? When, for example, is silence
in one modality filled by signals in another, and when does noise
arise from too many (and potentially contradictory) signals between
the modalities?
- How can silence and noise be identified in the area of facial
expressions, gaze, gesture, body movement, posture, etc., and what is
their potential contribution to meaning?
- How does silence structure and shape communication?
- How does multimodal feedback help to deal with issues of silence and
noise?
We invite contributions that will help us move the field forward, from
qualitative and quantitative
research, involving experimental and non-experimental data from
different languages
Invited Speakers:
Cornela Ebert, Goethe-University Frankfurt
Maciej Karpiński, Adam-Mickiewicz University Poznań
Pilar Prieto, Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Petra Wagner, University of Bielefeld
N.N. (CA expert)
Abstract submission deadline (one-page abstracts with additional
second page for figures, examples, tables and references) will be
September 20th. The workshop language is English. Talks will be 20
minutes and 10 minutes discussion.



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