4th Lodz Symposium
New Developments in Linguistic Pragmatics
University of Lodz, Poland
Institute of English
Department of Pragmatics
Lodz, 15-18 May 2008

The conference comes as an answer to substantial intensification of pragmatics-oriented research in the past two decades, and provides forum for its essential systematization. We encourage papers representing current state of research in the field of linguistic pragmatics seen in the broad sense as a functional (i.e. cognitive, social and cultural) perspective on language and communication. Participants are invited to prepare 20-minute presentations on one of the following topics:

• application of linguistic pragmatics in the analysis of real-life discourse (language of politics and the media; advertising; social communication; misunderstandings; humor, etc.)
• status of linguistic pragmatics in relation to such disciplines as sociolinguistics, anthropology, social psychology, cognitive linguistics and culture studies
• language and processes of ideological symbolization, including folk linguistic ideologies, normative use of language and language-based reproduction of ideologies
• language of the state, viz. language policies and language planning at various stages of the information flow, including the art of document design and press releases
• societal multilingualism, linguistic pluralism and linguistic minority policies
• methodology of pragmatic investigation and parameters of analysis
• pragmatic aspects of translation and interpreting
• implementation of pragmatic awareness in foreign language teaching

NB: The list of topics is NOT exhaustive. The organizers hope to offer multiple grounds for discussion of a genuinely cross-disciplinary approach to linguistic pragmatics.

PLENARIES

Like in the previous conferences, there will be 5-7 plenary presentations by world-leading specialists in pragmatics, discourse analysis and communication studies. As of 1 August 2007, the following speakers have announced their participation:

• Jacob MEY (University of Southern Denmark at Odense, Denmark)
• Robert M. HARNISH (University of Arizonaat Tucson, USA)
• Ken P. TURNER (University of Brighton, UK)
• Robyn CARSTON (University College London, UK)
• Laszlo KOMLOSI (University of Pecs, Hungary)
• Stephen LEVINSON (Max-Planck-Institute of Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, Holland)

PAPERS AND PUBLICATION

The conference language is English. Participants intending to give a paper are requested to send a 200-300 word abstract by e-mail to the following address: strus_pl@yahoo.com. The abstract should include name and the academic title, academic affiliation, e-mail address and a postal address. Deadline for submission of abstractsis 15 NOVEMBER 2007. Notification of acceptance will be sent by 15 DECEMBER 2007. Participants intending to come with out a paper are asked to e-mail their name and academic affiliation.

A peer-reviewed selection of conference papers will be published in a post-conference volume produced by an international publisher. Some papers may also be published in the international journal Lodz Papers in Pragmatics, in printed and electronic format via MetaPress (http://www.versita.com/science/socialsciences/lpp/).