37.2890, Confs: Panel at IPC20: Integrating Conversation Analysis and Semantics Into New Perspectives (Finland)

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-37-2890. Fri Sep 11 2026. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 37.2890, Confs: Panel at IPC20: Integrating Conversation Analysis and Semantics Into New Perspectives (Finland)

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Date: 10-Sep-2026
From: Yida Cai [yida.cai at helsinki.fi]
Subject: Panel at IPC20: Integrating Conversation Analysis and Semantics Into New Perspectives


Panel at IPC20: Integrating Conversation Analysis and Semantics Into
New Perspectives
Short Title: IPC20
Theme: Integrating conversation analysis and semantics into new
perspectives

Date: 27-Jun-2027 - 02-Jul-2027
Location: Helsinki, Finland
Contact: Yida Cai
Contact Email: yida.cai at helsinki.fi
Meeting URL: https://pragmatics.international/page/CfP2027

Linguistic Field(s): Pragmatics; Semantics

Submission Deadline: 15-Oct-2026

Panel Description:
Panel: Integrating conversation analysis and semantics into new
perspectives
Organized by Yida Cai, University of Helsinki
Discussant: Prof. Arnulf Deppermann
This is a panel at the 20th International Pragmatics Conference
(IPC20) that aims to provide an opportunity to discuss how
conversation analysis (CA) and semantics can be integrated to study
linguistic phenomena more deeply from various perspectives. Within
Interactional Linguistics (IL), CA is the primary method used, which
focuses on how linguistic resources operate in the formation of action
and the sequential organization of interaction to achieve common
understanding between interlocutors (e.g., Couper-Kuhlen & Selting
2018). However, as Deppermann and De Stefani (2023) indicate,
semantics is rarely discussed as the object of study in CA and IL,
although interlocutors' understanding and the practices of meaningful
action are stated as their predominant objects of study. Many scholars
have begun to consider the advantages of combining CA and semantics,
putting it into practice from various perspectives and illustrating
how their integration can provide a more comprehensive understanding
of linguistic phenomena.
Interactional Semantics is an area of research gaining increasing
interest, combining CA and semantics to investigate how interlocutors
negotiate and clarify local meaning in interactional contexts from
diverse viewpoints, including meta-semantic practices and
interactional histories (Deppermann 2024). As Deppermann (2024, p.
126) states, Interactional Semantics can help us capture how meanings
are manifested, changed, and otherwise shaped during interactions. The
aim of exploring how meanings are organized in interaction also
motivates, for instance, the Occasioned Semantics approach, which
systematically examines conversational meaning from diverse
perspectives, such as generalization and specification (Bilmes 2011).
In addition, CA and semantics have been integrated to promote
methodology for capturing a deeper understanding of language use in
interaction. For instance, Spiess (2025) illustrates how frame
semantics can be integrated with CA to support the interpretation of
actions.
This panel encourages both interactional linguistics and semantics
researchers to discuss the compatibility of CA and semantic
perspectives, focusing on how CA and semantics can be combined in
various ways to deepen understanding of language use and the meanings
that arise in interaction. The panel is open to papers on all
perspectives on combining CA and semantics, including, but not limited
to, how meanings in interaction can be investigated from both
interactional and semantic perspectives, and how methodology can be
developed by integrating CA with a specific semantic analysis
approach.
Please submit your abstract at Call for Papers platform of the
conference by 15 October 2026:
https://pragmatics.international/page/CfP2027
For further information, please contact the panel organizer:
Yida Cai (University of Helsinki), yida.cai at helsinki.fi
References:
Bilmes, Jack. 2011. “Occasioned Semantics: A Systematic Approach to
Meaning in Talk.” Human Studies 34: 129–153.
Couper-Kuhlen, Elizabeth and Margret Selting. 2018. Interactional
Linguistics: Studying Language in Social Interaction. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Deppermann, Arnulf. 2024. “What do you understand by X? Semantics in
Interactional Linguistics.” In New Perspectives in Interactional
Linguistic Research, ed. by Margret Selting and Dagmar
Barth-Weingarten, 103–131. Studies in Language and Social Interaction
36. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Deppermann, Arnulf, and Elwys De Stefani. 2023. “Meaning in
Interaction.” Interactional Linguistics 3 (1–2): 1–12.
Spiess, Oliver. 2025. “Frames are for Talking: Modeling Interactants’
Co-Constructed Semantic and Pragmatic Structures.” Journal of
Pragmatics 246: 170–187.



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