Full Title: Valence Asymmetries
Theme: The positive, the negative, the good and the bad in language, mind and morality

Date: 19-Mar-2026 - 20-Mar-2026
Location: Barcelona, Spain

Linguistic Field(s): Cognitive Science; General Linguistics; Philosophy of Language; Pragmatics; Semantics

Call Deadline: 30-Sep-2025

Call for Papers:

The Valence Asymmetries ERC team is happy to announce that it will be organizing the first VALENCE ASYMMETRIES conference on March 19th-20th 2026 at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain. The event is funded by Isidora Stojanovic’s ERC Advanced Grant “Valence Asymmetries: the positive, the negative, the good and the bad in language, mind and morality” (GA n° 101142133).

This interdisciplinary event will discuss themes which are central to the Valence Asymmetries project, including the role of valence asymmetries in perception, emotion, morality, language, and communication. Discussion will draw upon insights from linguistics, philosophy and psychology.

There will be invited talks by Hans Alves, Frederique de Vignemont, Saif Mohammad, and Pascal Willemsen. There is also room for 4-6 additional talks, to be selected from open submissions. Each selected talk will be assigned a 50 min slot, including discussion.

We especially encourage submissions on the relation between value, valence, and polarity; theoretical and empirical accounts of valence asymmetries in language, including in negative strengthening, scalar inferences, and irony; the asymmetry between virtue and vice, and between praise and blame, in normative and applied ethics; as well as other discussions of valence asymmetries in linguistics, cognitive science, moral psychology, and cognate areas.

If you are interested in presenting your work at this venue, please submit a 2-page abstract to [email protected] by Sep 30th, with the subject line “valence asymmetries submission”.

Invited speakers:
Hans Alves (Ruhr Universität Bochum)
Frédérique de Vignemont (Institut Jean Nicod)
Saif Mohammad (National Research Council Canada)
Pascale Willemsen (Universität Zürich)

Program Committee and Organization:
Isidora Stojanovic (Chair)
Lorenza D’Angelo
Morgan Moyer
Michelle Stankovic