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International Conference: Semantics without Borders

The University of Bielsko-Biala, Poland, September 11-13, 2008.

Abstracts are due April 30, 2008 (500 word max)

Send abstracts to and

Additional information

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE SEMANTICS WITHOUT BORDERS, BIELSKO-BIAŁA, POLAND, SEPTEMBER 11-13, 2008, I CIRCULAR

The University of Bielsko-Biala (Institute of English in cooperation with Institute of General Linguistics and Methodology of Humanistic Research) is pleased to announce the organization of an international conference Semantics without borders: morphemes, words, constructions, texts.

The conference will take place in Bielsko-Biala, Sept. 11-13, 2008. The venue will be the University of Bielsko-Biala, ul. Willowa 2.

Dear friends and colleagues,
There is considerable agreement among modern linguists that, except for (perhaps!) phonology, meaning is central to all units and levels of language analysis. Over the last three decades we have seen unprecedented growth in the awareness of the crucial importance of meaning in both morphology, and syntax and discourse, which has been accompanied by a comparable growth in the number of theoretical attempts at explaining the semantic aspects of various phenomena characteristic of those fields of linguistic research. Of particular interest seem to be those proposals which seek to account for the emergence of meaning in terms of general cognitive and/or conceptual operations, such as schematization, metaphor, metonymy and conceptual blending. In addition, the recent advances in neuroscience have made it possible to empirically test the increasing number of explanatory hypotheses by looking at our cognitive and linguistic brain. Computer simulations have also become more and more sophisticated. Although much progress has already been made, most of us know that the real quest for answers has only just begun. The new findings and theories appear almost on a daily basis; therefore, it is extremely important that we meet and share the current results of our research as often as possible – in order to be better informed, sometimes criticized and challenged, but above all to find new stimulation and inspiration. We have no doubt that a lot of this stimulation and inspiration will also come from our plenary lectures, presented by four distinguished scholars:

Ewa Dabrowska
Klaus Uwe-Panther
Margaret Winters
Jordan Zlatev

As organizers of this conference, we hope to create a friendly and comfortable atmosphere for a high level formal and informal exchange of ideas, suggestions and results in various linguistic fields. We are a comparatively young university, but Bielsko-Biała seems to be an ideal place for this kind of meeting and we hope all the participants will not only profit from our conference because of its academic merits, but also because they find the stay here relaxing, as well as socially and culturally rewarding.

Papers are invited in the following areas of research: - semantics in morphology (polysemy of affixes, semantics of grammatical cases, conceptual integration in compounds, acquisition of morphology etc.) - lexical semantics (theories of word meaning and semantic representation, cognitive principles in historical semantics, semantic relations, acquisition of lexical meaning, etc.) - semantics of grammar (grammaticalization, construction grammar, metaphor and metonymy in grammar, acquisition of syntax) - construction of meaning in context (cognitive foundations of pragmatics, semantics of speech acts, grounding in grammar, scenarios, frames and spaces in meaning construction, body in communication, intersubjectivity, acquisition of pragmatics) - motivation and embodiment of language

This list is not exhaustive.

Abstracts of papers (max. 500 words) should be sent exclusively by e-mail to the following addresses: and

The deadline for reception is April 30, 2008. Participants will be notified of the acceptance of their papers.

The length of the presentation will be 20 minutes, followed by 10 minutes for discussion.

The conference fee is 150 EUROS; for participants from currency problem countries: 200 PLN. The conference fee covers only the cost of participation in the conference.

Details of payment and the registration form will be sent with the II Circular, in March 2008.

Contact addresses:
Institute of English:
dr Krzysztof Polok
mgr Slawomir Konkol

January 24, 2008 12:01 AM | 06:01 (2008-01-24) , events