7th International Conference on Discourse-Pragmatic Variation and Change
Short Title: DiPVaC7

Date: 23-Sep-2026 - 25-Sep-2026
Location: Salzburg, Austria
Contact: DiPVaC Conference Committee
Contact Email: [email protected]
Meeting URL: https://dipvac7.com/

Linguistic Field(s): Applied Linguistics; Discourse Analysis; Language Acquisition; Pragmatics; Sociolinguistics

Submission Deadline: 07-Jan-2026

We are delighted to announce the 7th international Discourse-Pragmatic Variation and Change (DiPVaC) conference, which takes place at the University of Salzburg, Austria, from 23-25 September 2026.

Keynotes:
Miriam Meyerhoff — University of Oxford, UK
Emma Moore — University of Sheffield, UK
John A. Bateman — University of Bremen, Germany
Gunther Kaltenböck — University of Graz, Austria
Scott F. Kiesling — University of Pittsburgh, USA

The Conference Series:
DiPVaC is a biennial international conference series showcasing cutting-edge, (primarily) quantitative research on variation and change in what are broadly termed discourse-pragmatic features: this includes (but is not limited to) research on discourse markers or pragmatic particles whose primary functions are interpersonal and textual (e.g., well, like, you know, comme, alors, doch, zwar, diciamo, dakedo, etc.); tag questions; silence; filled pauses; adjectives; adverbs; and general extenders.

The Research Network:
The conference builds on an extensive international research network (see www.dipvac.org) with a track record of profiling the latest research in discourse-pragmatic variation and change in a wide variety of languages. It also provides a forum for the discussion of methodological, empirical and theoretical advancements in the analysis of variation and change in the use of discourse-pragmatic features; opportunities for the examination of the social implications and applications of research into the use of these features; and the formation of new international and multidisciplinary research networks.

Presentations:
We welcome abstracts for oral presentations which take a (primarily) quantitative approach to data analysis and deal with diverse aspects of discourse-pragmatic variation and change in any language or variety. The 2026 conference theme is Interfaces; and as such, research that intersects variationist approaches to discourse-pragmatic variation and change with other research traditions is particularly encouraged: such as cognition, social perception, multimodality, etc. Presentations will be 20 minutes long, followed by 10 minutes of Q&A. Talks will be in English. Paper topics may include, but are not limited to, the following:

- sociolinguistic patterns of discourse-pragmatic variation and change
- multimodal aspects of discourse-pragmatic variation and change
- discourse-pragmatic variation and change in contexts of language contact
- quantitative studies addressing the grammaticalization of discourse-pragmatic features
- contrastive/cross-linguistic studies of discourse-pragmatic variation & change
- methods in the quantitative analysis of discourse-pragmatic features
- social and geographical diffusion patterns of innovative discourse features
- the role of discourse-pragmatic features in the construction and negotiation of social identities
- the acquisition of discourse-pragmatic variation by children, second language learners and bilingual speakers
- discourse-pragmatic variation and change across the lifespan
- socio-perceptual studies of discourse-pragmatic variation
- discourse-pragmatic variation across interactional, situational and technological settings
- implications and applications of discourse-pragmatic variation and change within and beyond linguistic theory

Special Session: The forensics discourse-pragmatic interface

We also welcome abstracts for a special session on approaches to forensic and individual variation in the use of discourse-pragmatic features, which creates a space for a novel interface between the forensic linguistic and DiPVaC communities. Papers are particularly welcome which investigate the use of discourse-level variables in authorship and speaker comparison analysis. We equally welcome work from DiPVaC researchers who focus on the role of the individual in variation.
If you would like to submit a paper to this special session, please ensure that you indicate this in the appropriate section of the submission form.

How to Submit:
Abstracts should be submitted through EasyAbs maintained by the LINGUIST List: https://easyabs.linguistlist.org/conference/DiPVaC7/

Abstracts:
- should be a maximum of 300 words in length (excl. title and references); the text should preferably fit on one page.
- should be properly anonymised in order to allow for blind review.
- should use in-text citation when referring to previous work.
- must be submitted in PDF format.

When Submitting Your Abstract:
- Please provide the names of all authors in the ‘Authors’ section of the abstract-submission form.
- Include the affiliation of all authors in the ‘State all universities/ institutions that the author(s) is/are affiliated with here’ section.
- Provide all authors’ e-mail addresses in the ‘Add an email address for each author here’ section.

Timeline:
Call opens on 1 October 2025.
Submit your abstract by 7 January 2026.
Notification of acceptance by 1 March 2026.

Contact:
All questions about submissions should be emailed to [email protected]

Erik Schleef, Jana Pflaeging, Matthew Hadodo, Evelyn N. Roth, and Sabrina Ryffel
Department of English and American Studies — University of Salzburg