37.2980, Confs: International Research Symposium 2027 - Cultural-Cognitive Approaches to African Englishes: Language, Identity, and Conceptualisation in African Contexts (Germany)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-37-2980. Thu Sep 17 2026. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 37.2980, Confs: International Research Symposium 2027 - Cultural-Cognitive Approaches to African Englishes: Language, Identity, and Conceptualisation in African Contexts (Germany)

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Date: 16-Sep-2026
From: Folajimi Oyebola [oyebola at uni-bremen.de]
Subject: International Research Symposium 2027 - Cultural-Cognitive Approaches to African Englishes: Language, Identity, and Conceptualisation in African Contexts


International Research Symposium 2027 - Cultural-Cognitive Approaches
to African Englishes: Language, Identity, and Conceptualisation in
African Contexts
Short Title: CAPE 2027

Date: 29-Sep-2027 - 01-Oct-2027
Location: Bremen, Germany
Contact: Folajimi Oyebola
Contact Email: oyebola at uni-bremen.de
Meeting URL: https://blogs.uni-bremen.de/cape/cfp/

Linguistic Field(s): Anthropological Linguistics; Applied Linguistics;
Pragmatics; Sociolinguistics; Text/Corpus Linguistics
Subject Language(s): English (eng, stan1293)

Submission Deadline: 31-Mar-2027

African Englishes have emerged as a major area of inquiry within
contemporary linguistics, offering important insights into the complex
relationships among language, culture, cognition, identity, and social
change. Research on African Englishes has witnessed remarkable growth
and diversification in recent years, as evidenced by a number of
influential edited volumes and monographs (Esimaje et al., 2019;
Akinlotan, 2023; Esimaje et al., 2023; Kecskes et al., 2025; Ngefac et
al., 2025; Sabao & Mavengano, 2025). While scholarship on African
Englishes has traditionally focused on structural variation, language
contact, sociolinguistic developments, and postcolonial language
dynamics, increasing scholarly attention has been devoted,
particularly since the publication of Wolf and Polzenhagen’s (2009)
seminal study, to the cultural and cognitive dimensions that shape
African Englishes and linguistic practices across African contexts.
Speakers of African Englishes draw on culturally grounded conceptual
systems, local knowledge structures, multilingual repertoires, and
shared communicative traditions in the production and interpretation
of meaning. These processes influence how identities are constructed,
how social realities are conceptualised, and how linguistic innovation
emerges within diverse African speech communities.
This international symposium seeks to bring together scholars working
at the intersection of African Englishes, cognitive linguistics,
sociolinguistics, pragmatics, discourse studies, linguistic
anthropology, and related disciplines to explore how
cultural-cognitive approaches can advance our understanding of English
in Africa. It aims to foster interdisciplinary dialogue and addresses
the guiding question of the extent to which cultural-cognitive
linguistics can provide a productive framework for understanding
processes of structural nativisation, cultural conceptualisation,
linguistic variation, meaning-making, and identity construction in
African Englishes. This academic event will provide a platform for
established scholars and early-career researchers to share theoretical
perspectives, methodological innovations, and empirical findings
concerning the complex interaction among language, culture, cognition,
and society in English-speaking African contexts.
We invite abstracts for presentations that employ a range of
theoretical perspectives, methodological approaches, and empirical
data and address one or more of the following thematic areas:
 - the interplay of language, culture, and cognition in African
Englishes, including language contact, cognitive adaptation, and
conceptual transfer
 - Construction Grammar and usage-based approaches to language
development, variation, and change in African Englishes
 - Pragmatic variation across African Englishes, including speech
acts, discourse practices, politeness, and intercultural communication
 - Metaphorically motivated lexis and phraseology in African
Englishes, including conceptual metaphors, metaphorical expressions,
idioms, proverbs, and other forms of figurative language
 - Corpus-based, experimental, and mixed-methods approaches to
cultural-cognitive aspects of African Englishes
In addition to the symposium, we are organising a doctoral workshop
for PhD researchers whose research engages with cultural-cognitive
aspects of African Englishes. The workshop will provide a supportive
environment for scholarly exchange, mentoring, and professional
networking. PhD researchers will have the opportunity to present their
ongoing research projects and receive constructive feedback from
established scholars working in the fields of African Englishes,
cognitive linguistics, and related disciplines. PhD researchers
wishing to participate in the doctoral workshop should indicate this
clearly when submitting their abstracts.
Submission Guidelines:
Abstracts of up to 500 words (excluding references) should be
submitted in PDF format to: oyebola at uni-bremen.de and
callies at uni-bremen.de and should clearly outline the research
question, theoretical framework, methodology, and key findings (where
applicable).
Submission deadline: 31 March 2027.
Presentation format: 20-minute presentation followed by 10 minutes of
discussion.
References:
Akinlotan, M. (2023). Englishes in Africa. Peter Lang.
Esimaje, A., Gut, U. & Antia, B. E. (eds.). (2019). Corpus Linguistics
and African Englishes. John Benjamins.
Esimaje, A., van Rooy, B., Jolayemi, D., Nkemleke, D. & Klu, E.
(eds.). (2023). African Perspectives on the Teaching and Learning of
English in Higher Education. Routledge.
Kecskes, I., Buregeya, A., Odebunmi, A., Unuabonah, F. O., Agyekum, K.
& Dinh, H. (eds.). (2025). Pragmatics of African Varieties of English.
De Gruyter Mouton.
Ngefac, A., Zang, P. Z., Brato, T. & Leimgruber, J. R. (eds.). (2025).
African Englishes and Multilingualism for the Transformative
Development of Postcolonial Africa. Bloomsbury Academic.
Sabao, C. & Mavengano, E. (eds.). (2025). African Englishes:
Contemporary Trends and Sociolinguistic Shifts. Routledge.
Wolf, H.-G. & Polzenhagen, F. (2009). World Englishes: A Cognitive
Sociolinguistic Approach. Mouton de Gruyter.



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