LINGUIST List 13.2213

Tue Sep 3 2002

Calls: Cognitive Ling, Computational Ling

Editor for this issue: Renee Galvis <reneelinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Geert.Bronearts.kuleuven.ac.be>, Call for Papers: Cognitive-linguistic Approaches to Humour
2. call_for_papers, Conferences in Rhodes Island, GREECE

CALL FOR PAPERS

Theme Session at ICLC 2003 (Subject to ICLC Acceptance)

Cognitive-linguistic Approaches to Humour

July 20-25, 2003 
Logrono (Spain)


In concentrating on the conceptual and cross-cognitive aspects of
language use, Cognitive Linguists have given centre stage to phenomena
like metaphor that more traditional paradigms of linguistic inquiry
have relegated to the periphery of cognitive processing. We believe
another peripheralized area of conceptual inquiry, humour, will return
similar dividends as the study of metaphor, inasmuch as it will shed
light on crucial aspects of cognitive processing that extend beyond
the purely 'humorous'. Jokes are incredibly fragile linguistic and
conceptual constructs whose meaning depends vitally on a nexus of
quantitative criteria (such as the timing of delivery, and the
activation of key expectations) and qualitative criteria (such as
social context, cultural taboos, shared world models, etc.). The
fragility of humour makes it an ideal linguistic form in which to
theorize about the relationship between the quantitative and
qualitative aspects of language and cognition.

Nonetheless, humour is still a widely under-franchised topic with
Cognitive Science in general, and Cognitive Linguistics in
specific. This is perhaps ironic inasmuch as Cognitive Linguistics
provides the most articulate tools with which to study the complex
nexus of phenomena that combine to produce humour. We believe the
field of Cognitive Linguistics has much to offer the study of humour,
and vice versa, since the study of the latter may allow us to
articulate a framework for exploring the systematicity, stability and
dynamics of not just humour, but also (following Koestler), artistic
creativity and scientific insight.

If accepted as a theme session for ICLC 2003, this meeting will focus
on theoretical as well as empirical observations of humour, both
verbal and visual as well as one-line and narrative, in an attempt to
promote and stimulate a multifaceted research effort from a cognitive
linguistic perspective.

There are several broad issues that this thematic session expects to
address:

- Theories and folk models: like language in general, humour is
defined both by the people that use it and the ways in which it is
used. This raises the question of how well our formal theories of
humour resonate with more folk models of the phenomenon. For instance,
different people make different distinctions between humour and wit,
irony and sarcasm, satire and farce, etc. Do these domains of humour
constitute a radial category with prototypical and non-prototypical
members?

- Existing theories of humour: How cognitively motivated are existing
theories of humour, like Raskin's semantic-script theory (SSTH) and
Attardo's general theory of verbal humour (GTVH)? To what extent do
corresponding constructs already exist in Cognitive Linguistics (CL),
and to what extent can these other theories inform CL.

- Metaphor, metonymy, blending and humour: What is the interplay
between these 'mechanisms'? Is there any structural relationship
between metaphorically and/or metonymically structured utterances and
the appreciation of these utterances as being humorous? Is any one
mechanism more general than the others to the extent that it can
accommodate the others, or do all four point to a fifth, all-embracing
framework?

Also, to what extent can humour be schematised in a similar way to
metaphor? Are there humour equivalents to metaphor schema like 'Love
is a Journey' or does humour necessarily imply a lack of
schematization.

- Visual and verbal: To what extent does visual humour, like cartoons,
simply encode linguistic humour in imagistic terms? To what extent
does linguistic humour rely on mental imagery? Do image schemata play
a similar role in visual and verbal humour or do they find different
uses in each medium?

- Other media: Mozart's 'Musical Joke' demonstrates that humour is not
confined to the purely verbal or visual. What constraints shape the
use of humour in other media?

- Generation versus Interpretation: Everyone is capable of
understanding and enjoying humour, but very few amongst us are capable
of generating genuinely new and creative examples of humour (i.e., the
ratio of joke creation to joke repetition is tiny). What does this
fundamental asymmetry between generation and interpretation say about
humour in particular and cognition in general?

- Timing and Delivery: Why is verbal humour (and in particular,
narrative humour) so sensitive to issues of timing and delivery. Can
we articulate the reasons more formally and if so, apply them to other
domains of CL inquiry?

- Ambiguity and the communicational aspects of humour What are the
cognitive and communicational costs/benefits of the exploitation of
ambiguity? Why do we actively seek ambiguity (wit/word play/ humour
??) in certain circumstances and do not always disambiguate
automatically? Why do adverts/headlines based on the exploitation of
ambiguity work so well? What happens in conversation when we use
words/phrases with multiple meanings?

- Experimental humour studies (language acquisition): Why do children
latch onto jokes and riddles between age 7 and 8? Do autistic children
fail to do so and if so why? In what (non-obvious) ways is the
exploitation of humour related to the acquisition of language? What
happens in the brain when we use and understand words with multiple
meanings?

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS 

Seana Coulson (University of San Diego) - 
 Humour and Conceptual Blending
Tony Veale (University College Dublin) - 
 Quantitative Issues in Humour 
[Others to be announced later]

DISCUSSANTS

Brigitte Nerlich
Kurt Feyaerts
Geert Brone
[Others to be announced later]

PAPERS / ABSTRACTS: 

The presentation of each paper will take 20 minutes. There will be a
period of collective discussion and questions at the end of the
session.

All abstracts should be maximum 500 words (about one page), including
references, and they should specify research question(s),
approach/method/data, and (expected) results. Each proposal will be
reviewed anonymously by members of the international panel.

DEADLINE: September 25, 2002 

Notifications of the Organizing Committee's decisions will be sent out
by February 15, 2003.

Electronic submissions are strongly encouraged. Add a Word-document
with two sheets: one with the anonymous abstract and another with your
data

- author name(s) 
- affiliation(s) 
- telephone number 
- fax number 
- email address 
- title of presentation 
- (three or four) keywords 

Submit your proposal to the following email address:

geert.bronearts.kuleuven.ac.be

Only those proposals following the abstract specifications will be
considered.

ORGANIZERS 

Tony Veale (University of Dublin), tony.vealeucd.ie
Kurt Feyaerts (University of Leuven),
 kurt.feyaertsarts.kuleuven.ac.be
Geert Brone (University of Leuven), geert.bronearts.kuleuven.ac.be



Geert Brone
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Departement Linguistiek
Blijde-Inkomststraat 21
3000 Leuven
Belgium
tel: (0032) (0)16-324812
fax: (0032) (0)16-324767
e-mail: geert.bronearts.kuleuven.ac.be

After the impressive success of the previous conferences of WSEAS, you
are invited to submit a paper or to organize a session or a group of
sessions for the conferences:
	
3rd WSEAS Int. Conf. on APPLIED INFORMATICS AND COMMUNICATIONS
(AIC'03)
http://www.wseas.org/conferences/2003/rhodes/aic
	
3rd WSEAS Int. Conf. on SIGNAL PROCESSING, COMPUTATIONAL GEOMETRY &
ARTIFICIAL VISION (ISCGAV'03)
http://www.wseas.org/conferences/2003/signal
	
3rd WSEAS Int. Conf. on SYSTEMS THEORY AND SCIENTIFIC COMPUTATION
(ISTASC'03) (former: Scientific Computation and Soft Computing) 
http://www.wseas.org/conferences/2003/rhodes/istasc
	
RHODES Island, Greece, July 28-30, 2003 
	
Like in all WSEAS Sponsored Conferences, all the accepted papers will
be simultaneously published not only in the usual conference
proceedings, but also as chapters in the WSEAS Press Book Series or as
papers in WSEAS Transactions (Journals)

The Proceedings and WSEAS Press Book Series will be edited by WSEAS
Press (Athens, Greece).
	
Chairmen of the Conferences and Editors of the Proceedings: See the web
	
Please, visit: http://www.wseas.org 

(Please, do not reply to the email address: call_for_paperswses.org,
but to the one that you can find in the web pages of the conferences)
	
	
RHODES: is a cosmopolitan resort in the south Aegean Archipelago in
the Mediterranean Sea, where Europe meets the Orient and is the third
largest of the Greek islands. Combining Europe with Orient and nearly
the whole year favored by the God of Sun "Helios", it is a real
experience to discover. The old Town of Rhodes is the largest
inhabited walled medieval city in Europe and included in UNESCO's list
of World Heritage Sites.

It is called island of Sun, (the most sunniest place in Europe). It
is called island of Knights, (see the History of the Island below).
It is called island of Roses ("rhode" means rose in greek). It is
called island of Butterflies (because of the famous - unique in the
world - valley of butterflies). It is called island of the seven
springs (because of the famous valley of the seven springs).
	
	Best Regards
	
	K.Papanikolaou