37.1863, Confs: SHAPE in Language and Cognition (France)

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-37-1863. Fri May 22 2026. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 37.1863, Confs: SHAPE in Language and Cognition (France)

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Date: 20-May-2026
From: Nour Efrat-Kowalsky [nour.efrat-kowalsky at cnrs.fr]
Subject: SHAPE in Language and Cognition


SHAPE in Language and Cognition
Short Title: SHAPE
Theme: ERC-Synergy grant SHAPE Kick-off

Date: 08-Jun-2026 - 09-Jun-2026
Location: Paris, France
Meeting URL: https://www.ntnu.edu/shape/events

Linguistic Field(s): Cognitive Science; General Linguistics; Typology

The conference “Shape – in Language and Cognition” brings together
international researchers to examine the role of shape in visual
perception, conceptual development, and linguistic structure. This
event marks the launch of the ERC-funded SHAPE project (ERC
SynergyGrant – ID 101167183).
June 8–9, 2026
Auditorium Georges Dumézil, INALCO, Paris
Free access | Online participation available:
https://zoom.us/j/98346033268  |  Passcode: 024336
Shape is a prominent feature of the visual world and determines how we
perceive and store information about objects, how we interact with
them, and what uses they can be put to. To give just a few examples,
shape is richly encoded in the languages of the world by organizing
object labels in terms of their shape (tall elongated objects, slim
objects, round oval objects), as well as actions involving
manipulating those objects which are encoded in verbs. For instance,
while most European languages classify the world into just masculine,
feminine, and sometimes neuter genders, languages such as Mandarin
Chinese and Amazonian Bora have special grammatical categories for
round vs. flat vs. long objects. And in sign languages, shape
prominently organizes the lexicon and grammar, with the hands
representing visuo-geometric properties of real-world referents.
During early language acquisition, children attend to shape as a vital
cue for acquiring the label of objects. This process develops at the
intersection between spatial ability skills and language, especially
vocabulary size. But interestingly, children on atypical developmental
trajectories tend to have problems in using this strategy for word
learning. All of this suggests that there is a rich, and probably
bi-directional relationship between the visual perception of shape and
its representation in language.
The colloquium "SHAPE in Language and Cognition" brings together an
interdisciplinary and international group of experts to discuss the
relationship between the visual perception of shape and language. The
talks will focus on the encoding of shape across both spoken and
signed languages of the world and on the factors that constrain
cross-linguistic variation. More broadly, they will address the
two-way relationship between spatial cognition and language from the
perspectives of global linguistic and cultural diversity, language
acquisition and cognitive development, and the factors that contribute
to difficulties in this domain for children on atypical developmental
paths. The colloquium marks the initiation of the six-year
international research project "The System of Shape Representations in
Cognition, Development and Across Languages", funded by an ERC Synergy
Grant ID: 101 167183 (see https://www.ntnu.edu/shape/).



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