It is not uncommon among researchers to face unexpected issues while analyzing a linguistic phenomenon. This is even more so for those at the beginning of their career. The I PhD Student Conference in Linguistics in Rome (ConDoR2022) aims at creating an occasion for young researchers to meet and discuss some of these common issues among peers while looking for possible solutions to share. Although unforeseen events may at first dishearten researchers, these often can represent an opportunity to find new theoretical and methodological ways and question the more widely known ones. In other words, accidents, hitches, and glitches are new stimuli to the research process, which is ever-evolving by nature.
«The swoon of a man, even of one the most firm and energetic, under the sudden shock of an unexpected stroke of good fortune, is nothing wonderful. A man is knocked down by the unforeseen blow, like an ox by the poleaxe.» (Victor Hugo)
Call For Papers
Proposals dealing with the role of accidents in linguistic research will be welcome, notably addressing the following aspects:
- Thanks to the widespread use of online corpora (yet not exclusively), empirical linguistic data have recently received significant attention. As a consequence, discrepancies between real linguistic facts and theory-driven expectations and predictions are more likely to come to light. So how should we combine and/or question theoretical assumptions based on empirical data?
- Some linguistic phenomena seem to call for non-monovalent but rather multifaceted approaches. For this reason, over the last decades, investigations started analyzing data at the interface between different linguistic levels or, more generally, considering analytical tools and approaches from other scientific fields (e.g., translation studies, philology, psychology, neurosciences, computer sciences, a.o.). Can we then find new solutions for traditional problems by looking at them from these new alternative perspectives? To what extent can these hybrid approaches give rise to intriguing new questions?
- Linguistic research, when based on empirical data, often faces accidents that deviate from the researcher’s initial risk assessment. These may require the research to be adjusted to completely unforeseeable and unpredictable external situations, often beyond the researcher’s control. Which are some good ways to react, re-structure, and update one’s research project and path?
The Doctoral Programme in Linguistics in Rome stemmed from the collaboration between Università La Sapienza and Università Roma Tre. It is characterized by a multidisciplinary core thanks to its three curricula – General and Applied Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, and Italian Linguistics – at times integrated by other curricula, e.g., Acoustic Phonetics and Ethnopragmatics. Collaboration and exchange among researchers are considered fundamental formative factors within its inherently interactive context. With this firm belief, we felt the need to expand our call for interaction beyond our universities.
Practical information
The call is addressed to Master’s students who will have written their thesis by the time of the conference, PhD students, and PhDs who have attained their doctoral degree over the last year. Participants should present a 300-word abstract (references excluded) with 3 to 5 keywords. Abstracts should address the topic of the call from one of the perspectives characterizing our Doctoral Programme. Proposals can be presented in Italian or English but can regard any language. Each presentation will be given 20 minutes, followed by 10 minutes for discussion. Abstracts should be submitted through EasyChair at the following link: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=condor2022.
The conference will take place in a blended modality, and in-person events will take place one day at Università degli Studi Roma Tre (Scuola di Lettere, Filosofia e Lingue, via Ostiense 236) and the other day at Università La Sapienza (Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia, Piazzale Aldo Moro, 5). Participation will be free of charge, and it will include two coffee breaks and lunch per day offered by our Doctoral Committee. The official program for the conference will be made available online after notifications of acceptance, and it will include a plenary talk by Dr. Chiara Meluzzi (researcher at Università degli Studi di Milano) as invited speaker.
ConDoR2022 proceedings will be published. Further information will be provided at a later time.
Contact us: lingsapien3@gmail.com
CONDOR2022 