Sign Language in Göttingen

Call for Papers



More information in International Sign:


Workshop on “Dimensions of Iconicity in the Visual Modality”

University of Göttingen
February 13-14, 2025

Invited presenters


Workshop description

The presumably larger iconic potential of sign languages has often been regarded as an exception to the prevalence of arbitrariness in form-meaning relations in natural language. More recent research on multimodal communication argues that iconicity does not only affect form-meaning relations and logical forms in sign languages but also in spoken languages (e.g., ideophones and vocal gestures) and visual gestures accompanying spoken languages. In other words, it seems that iconic components clearly interact with and enter the semantic representation of (multimodal) linguistic utterances.

Against this background, this workshop will focus on iconicity as a potentially general property of human language in all modalities (i.e., spoken, written and signed), with a special focus on different dimensions of iconicity in the visual modality (i.e., sign, gesture, writing). Our aim is to bring together researchers from different (sub-)fields and perspectives to elucidate the linguistic and cognitive status and relevance of iconicity in language and cognition.

We invite theoretical and empirical submissions of original research for on-stage or poster presentations, provided that they fall under at least one or several of the following topics relevant to the main theme of the workshop:

  • The impact of iconicity on different levels of visual communication (lexical, grammatical, discourse functional; at-issue status of iconic enrichments).
  • The iconic potential of different manual and nonmanual articulators.
  • Iconic strategies used for the representation of different kinds of concepts.
  • Metaphorical extensions of iconic expressions.
  • Formal semantic and pragmatic analyses of iconic meaning contribution.
  • Theoretical analyses of iconicity in cognitive linguistics and semiotics.
  • Iconic form-meaning mismatches and the function of iconicity in lying and deceiving.
  • The implementation of iconicity in sign language corpora and multimodal spoken language corpora.
  • The function of iconicity in lexicalization, stabilization and grammaticalization processes.
  • The role of iconicity in language processing, in first and second language and gesture acquisition and in sign language teaching and interpreter training.

The languages of the workshop are English and German Sign Language (DGS). Interpretation between English and DGS will be provide.

Workshop location: University of Göttingen
Workshop dates: February 13-14, 2025
Contact: yuqiu.chen@uni-goettingen.de


Abstract submission

Abstracts must not be anonymized and can be submitted either in written English or as videos in DGS or International Sign. Written abstracts should not exceed a single A4 size page (plus a second page for references, figures and tables). Videos of signed abstracts should be no longer than 5 minutes.

We particularly encourage submissions from graduate students and junior researchers.

Please submit your abstract via Oxford Abstracts: https://app.oxfordabstracts.com/stages/75830/submitter
Deadline: 1st October 2024 (12am, CEST)
Notification of acceptance: 15th October 2024