Pushing the Boundaries of Linguistic Categorisation

Date: 10-Apr-2026 - 10-Apr-2026
Location: Paris, France
Contact: Juliette Cahard
Contact Email: [email protected]

Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics

Submission Deadline: 03-Nov-2025

We are delighted to announce that we are now receiving submissions for our symposium entitled “Pushing the boundaries of linguistic categorisation”. This symposium is organised by both the CELISO, Sorbonne University and the CREA, Paris Nanterre University. It will take place on Friday the 10th of April 2026 starting at 9 AM at the Maison de la Recherche, Sorbonne University, 28 rue Serpente, 75006 Paris (room D323).

The importance of categorisation as a cognitive operation cannot be overstated. Every thinking subject classify objects of thoughts within their intellectual domain; thus, categorisation is always naturally present and constitutes a central cognitive process that enables the comprehension and understanding of the world around us. It operates primarily through nouns whose sole function is to categorise (Mignot 2017: 128).
Grammatical categorisation is not only a cognitive process. It also corresponds to the classification into the different parts of speech. Thus, categorisation raises a number of challenges, particularly with regard to determining where an item belongs and precisely defining the boundaries between categories.

Proposals can address categorisation as a cognitive process, but also issues of prototypicality and marginal cases, the categorisation of linguistic phenomena or units, as well as the challenges or uncertainties involved in assigning elements to categories. Contributions may also explore the nature of category boundaries, whether rigid or fuzzy, processes of conversion, and the relevance or legitimacy of particular grammatical categories. Proposals can include but are not limited to these possible topics.

You will find the detailed CFP with a selected bibliography at the following address: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mHKgDcAxgJ3TjT3gbowifUsrQ119USts/view?usp=sharing.

This symposium is open to all researchers in linguistics. We welcome submissions regardless of the language under investigation or the theoretical perspective. Papers can be given in French or in English.

If you would like to participate, please send us a title, key words, an abstract of about 300 words followed by references as well as a short autobiography before November, 3rd 2025 to the following email addresses:

[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

Talks will last 20 minutes and will be followed by 10 minutes of discussion.

Juliette Cahard, Romain Delhem, Caroline Marty and Marie Turlais