LINGUIST List 21.2413 Tue Jun 01 2010 FYI: Intl. Pragmatics Association Conference - Call for Abstracts Editor for this issue: Rachelle Felzien <rachellelinguistlist.org> To post to LINGUIST, use our convenient web form at http://linguistlist.org/LL/posttolinguist.cfm. Directory         1.    Patricia Mayes, International Pragmatics Association Conference - Call for Abstracts Message 1: International Pragmatics Association Conference - Call for Abstracts Date: 29-May-2010 From: Patricia Mayes <mayesuwm.edu> Subject: International Pragmatics Association Conference - Call for Abstracts E-mail this message to a friend The 2011 International Pragmatics Association (IPrA) Conference, will explore the relationship between semantic and social agency in depth. The goal is to examine the construct of agency, but also to understand how agency can be used to examine the discursive construction of social relationships. Indeed, if we believe that semantic and social agents are constructed clause-by-clause through the grammar of the language, many of the features that are associated with the prototypical semantic agent might be called into question. Among the questions we might investigate are the following, many of which were originally suggested by Ahearn: Are agents necessarily human, or can machines, technology and even spirits be considered agents? What are the social or institutional consequences to considering non-humans of be agents? Are agents individuals, or can agency be collective and perhaps “distributed” across jointly-constructed actions (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005: 606)? Are agents “conscious, intentional, or effective,” as has been assumed in much of the literature on cognitive and functional linguistics (Ahearn 2001: 112)? How is agency (or assumptions about agency) used to construct social hierarchies or power differentials in particular contexts? Please send initial abstracts by June 11, and put “IPrA abstract” in the subject header of your e-mail. The first deadline for panels is June 15, after which there will be a chance to revise, according to reviewers’ comments, and resubmit by Sept 1. More information about the conference is available at their web site: http://ipra.ua.ac.be Patricia Mayes University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee mayesuwm.edu Linguistic Field(s): Anthropological Linguistics; Discourse Analysis; Pragmatics; Semantics; Sociolinguistics Read more issues|LINGUIST home page|Top of issue Page Updated: 01-Jun-2010       About LINGUIST    |   Contact Us       While the LINGUIST List makes every effort to ensure the linguistic relevance of sites listed on its pages, it cannot vouch for their contents.