37.3072, Confs: Theme session in ICLC 18: Figurativity, Rhetoric and the Study of Constructions (Germany)

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-37-3072. Fri Sep 25 2026. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 37.3072, Confs: Theme session in ICLC 18: Figurativity, Rhetoric and the Study of Constructions (Germany)

Moderator: Steven Moran (linguist at linguistlist.org)
Managing Editor: Valeriia Vyshnevetska
Team: Helen Aristar-Dry, Daniel Swanson
Jobs: jobs at linguistlist.org | Conferences: callconf at linguistlist.org | Pubs: pubs at linguistlist.org

Homepage: http://linguistlist.org

Editor for this issue: Valeriia Vyshnevetska <valeriia at linguistlist.org>

================================================================


Date: 24-Sep-2026
From: Angeliki Athanasiadou [angath at enl.auth.gr]
Subject: Theme session in ICLC 18: Figurativity, Rhetoric and the Study of Constructions


Theme session in ICLC 18: Figurativity, Rhetoric and the Study of
Constructions
Short Title: ICLC 18

Date: 20-Aug-2027 - 24-Aug-2027
Location: Germany
Contact: Angeliki Athanasiadou & Mingjian Xiang
Contact Email: angath at enl.auth.gr

Linguistic Field(s): Cognitive Science; Pragmatics; Semantics

Call for a theme session in ICLC 18
Title: “Figurativity, Rhetoric and the Study of Constructions”
Theme session organizers:
Angeliki Athanasiadou: angath at enl.auth.gr
Mingjian Xiang: wesleyxmj at vip.163.com
Submission Deadline: 08-Oct-2026
We are preparing a proposal for a theme session at the 18th
International Cognitive Linguistics Conference (ICLC 2027) in Germany
Figurative mechanisms can be examined in different constructions, in
discourse, and they reveal different stages of consciousness, “Because
they directly activate semantics, tropes are rhetorical figures that
guide our thoughts and shape our perceptions, sometimes condensing
them, sometimes merging them, sometimes pushing them into extremes or
oppositions, among their conceptual effects” (Harris 2023: 241). The
workshop aims to bring together researchers working on the
relationship between human cognitive operations and rhetorical
practices.
Those of us who work on figurative mechanisms, central, marginal or
neglected ones, necessarily delve into issues of grammatical
constructions and sociocultural interaction. However, a rhetorical
characterization of such instances seems indispensable. Rhetoric is
inevitably linked to persuasive, argumentative and viewpointed
discourse enabled by figurative language. Following Oakley (2009,
2011, 2023: 489), notions of attention management, framing and
emotional disposition need to be taken into account.
Key topics we aim to explore, though not limited to the ones below,
are the following:
 - What is the rhetorical effect on figurative constructions? How are
intersubjectivity, empathy, engagement enabled?
 - Attention can focus on present, past or future; realities can be
factual or counterfactual.
 - How does framing which includes rich encyclopedic and linguistic
knowledge guides our thoughts and language?
 - Emotions are naturally expressed by means of figurative mechanisms.
Apart from being biological and cultural descriptions, what is their
impact in reasoning?
 - It is said there are four master tropes, metaphor, metonymy,
synecdoche and irony. What about the rest? Are they rhetorical devices
only? Will allegory, anadiplosis, antimetabole, litotes, paronomasia,
… among many others be treated as rhetorical devices only? Or will
there be an attempt to investigate their cognitive need and impact?
(Athanasiadou 2023)
 - Could we provide an answer as to what mechanism irony is? (e.g.,
Gibbs & Colston 2007, 2023; Athanasiadou & Colston 2017, 2020) In
addition to irony (Tobin & Israel 2012) and rhetorical questions
(Xiang 2023), what other figures also involve a viewpoint
configuration?
 - Figures are named tropes, moves, schemes or strategies. Is it only
a terminological issue?
 - Will figures be said to form subordinate entities under a
superordinate “mega”-figure? For instance, metonymy, synecdoche, and
their frames: what is the distinctive line between the three?
 - Can we have a close association between cognitive mechanisms and
rhetorical reasoning?
 - Can grammaticality and rhetoric be bridged? What effects can be
achieved through the rhetorical use of grammatical constructions?
 - How do figures interact with each other in a rhetorical discourse?
We welcome expressions of interest from researchers who would like to
contribute to the proposed theme session. Researchers interested in
participating are invited to send the following:
- Name and affiliation
- Tentative title of the presentation
- Abstract of approximately 100 words
Please send the above information to both of us by October 8, 2026.
The theme session proposal will be submitted to the ICLC organizers by
October 15, 2026. The proposed theme session will consist of 6--10
papers, in accordance with the ICLC guidelines. If the theme session
is accepted, individual contributors will subsequently submit their
full abstracts for anonymous peer review in the general submission
round.
Should you have any further inquiries, do not hesitate to contact us
(angath at enl.auth.gr) and (wesleyxmj at vip.163.com)
Athanasiadou, A. (Guest Ed.). (2023). On the Margins of Figurative
Thought and Language [Special issue]. Lingua. Elsevier.
Athanasiadou, A., & Colston, H. L. (Eds.). (2017). Irony in Language
Use and Communication. John Benjamins.
Athanasiadou, A., & Colston, H. L. (Eds.). (2020). The Diversity of
Irony. Walter de Gruyter.
Gibbs, R. W., Jr., & Colston, H. L. (Eds.). (2007). Irony in Language
and Thought A Cognitive Science Reader. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Gibbs, R. W., Jr., & Colston, H. L. (Eds.). (2023). The Cambridge
Handbook of Irony and Thought. Cambridge University Press.
Harris, R. A. 2023. The Tropes. Metaphor and Its Friends. In: J.
Fahnestock & R. A. Harris (Eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Language
and Persuasion, 227-245.
Oakley, T. (2009). From Attention to Meaning: Explorations in
Semiotics, Linguistics, and Rhetoric. Peter Lang.
Oakley, T. (2011). Attention and Rhetoric. In: C. Meyer & F. Girke
(Eds.), The Rhetorical Emergence of Culture, 282-303.
Oakley, T. 2023. Grounding Cognition. Intersections of Rhetorical
Theory and Cognitive Science. In: J. Fahnestock & R. A. Harris (Eds.)
The Routledge Handbook of Language and Persuasion, 488-502.
Tobin, V., & Israel, M. (2012). Irony as a Viewpoint Phenomenon. In:
B. Dancygier & E. Sweetser (Eds.), Viewpoint in Language: A Multimodal
Perspective, 25-46.
Xiang, M. (2023). Fictive Questions in the Zhuangzi: A Cognitive
Rhetorical Study. John Benjamins.



------------------------------------------------------------------------------

********************** LINGUIST List Support ***********************
Please consider donating to the Linguist List, a U.S. 501(c)(3) not for profit organization:

https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=87C2AXTVC4PP8

LINGUIST List is supported by the following publishers:

Australian Linguistics Society https://als.asn.au/Home

Bloomsbury Publishing http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/

Cambridge University Press http://www.cambridge.org/linguistics

Cascadilla Press http://www.cascadilla.com/

De Gruyter Brill https://www.degruyterbrill.com/?changeLang=en

Edinburgh University Press http://www.edinburghuniversitypress.com

European Language Resources Association (ELRA) http://www.elra.info

John Benjamins http://www.benjamins.com/

Language Science Press http://langsci-press.org

Lincom GmbH https://lincom-shop.eu/

MDPI Languages https://www.mdpi.com/journal/languages

MIT Press http://mitpress.mit.edu/

Multilingual Matters http://www.multilingual-matters.com/

Narr Francke Attempto Verlag GmbH + Co. KG http://www.narr.de/

Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics / Landelijke (LOT) http://www.lotpublications.nl/

Peter Lang AG http://www.peterlang.com

SIL International Publications http://www.sil.org/resources/publications


----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-37-3072
----------------------------------------------------------