Figurative Thought and Language

25-26 April 2014
Thessaloniki, Greece

Thessaloniki Cognitive Linguistics Research Group invites scholars working on the way figurative thought has an impact on language to join us at the 1^st International Symposium on Figurative Thought and Language. The two-day symposium aims to continue the discussion and shed light on conceptual metaphor, conceptual metonymy and metaphtonymy.

Metaphor as a ubiquitous figure of language reflecting modes of thought has been discussed a lot since Lakoff and Johnson’s “Metaphors we live by”. Metonymy remained in the background, and, since its reappearance, many clear-cut cases of metaphor have been argued to have a metonymic basis. The across-domain and within-domain mapping do not seem to help much as criteria in distinguishing between metaphor and metonymy; sound evidence has been provided for even apparent instances of metaphor having a metonymic basis. Thus, the first aim of the symposium is to elucidate the criteria that would allow us to identify whether we have a case of metaphor or a case of metonymy.

Metaphtonymy, on the other hand, is very useful in combining both cognitive processes although the interaction between the two needs to be further examined.

Moreover, many grammatical phenomena have been discussed as being motivated by metaphor (e.g. modal verbs, from deontic to epistemic modality). Yet, the focus of attention has again been drawn on metonymy after Panther and Radden’s volume on Metonymy in Language and Thought (1999) and Langacker’s article “Metonymic Grammar” (2009). That will be the second aim of the symposium, i.e. to discuss not only the impact of metaphor but also the impact of metonymy on areas of grammar.

Additionally, the aim of the symposium is to explore how the cognitive processes of metaphor, metonymy and metaphtonymy have an impact on the relationship between language and emotions, language and humour, irony, sarcasm, euphemism, bodily experience, to name just a few.

The working language of the symposium is English. We encourage submissions dealing with the above issues on languages other than English.

Invited speakers

1. Guenter Radden, University of Hamburg, Germany.
2. Klaus-Uwe Panther and Linda Thornburg, University of Hamburg, Germany.
3. Francisco Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez, University of La Rioja, Spain.
4. Gerard Steen, VU University of Amsterdam.
5. Ad Foolen, Radboud University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
6. Ioannis Veloudis, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.
7. Panos Athanasopoulos, University of Reading, UK.

Important dates
Deadline for submission of abstracts: 15 November 2013
Notification of acceptance: 22 December 2013
Symposium: 25 and 26 April 2014

Organizers

1. Angeliki Athanasiadou
2. Anastasios Vogiatzis
3. Ioanna Karatsori

Venue
Museum of Byzantine Culture
Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art

Submission Guidelines

Abstracts should be sent at: ftl@enl.auth.gr
Abstracts should not exceed 500 words; additional material such as figures and references may be added on a second page.
There will be paper presentations (20 minute presentations + 10 for discussion) and poster presentations displayed at a special poster session.

Registration
General registration: early (before February 21^st) 60 Euros, late (after February 21^st) 80 Euros
Students: early (before February 21^st) 30 Euros, late (after February 21^st) 50 Euros

Contact
For any further information please contact us at ftl@enl.auth.gr.