FTL4

The 4th International Conference on Figurative Thought and Language (FTL4) aims to continue as a forum for the discussion of links between figurative thought and language started at previous events in Thessaloniki-Greece (2014), Pavia-Italy (2015) and Osijek-Croatia (2017).

Cognitive linguistics was at the time of its inception all about conceptual metaphors, and also about metonymies, image schemas and blending. As a result of the rapid development and diversification of cognitive linguistics, new topics and methodologies emerged, gradually pushing conceptual metaphors and metonymies out of the center stage. However, vigorous research into how conceptual metaphors and metonymies interact and motivate grammatical structures, discourse types and communication processes that we have recently witnessed justifies its coming back into the limelight.

We invite contributions from various theoretical and applied perspectives (e.g. cognitive linguistics, cognitive science, neuroscience, psychology, cognitive semiotics, cognitive poetics, cognitive anthropology and philosophy of mind), and methodologies (e.g. corpus studies, experimental techniques, synchronic and diachronic analyses, critical discourse analysis, sociovariational analysis, cross-linguistic and cross-cultural comparison, translation). Suggested topics include (but are not restricted to):

• the impact of figuration on levels of linguistic analysis (morphology, lexis, syntax, semantics, pragmatics);
• the impact of figuration on areas of grammar (grammatical constructions, grammatical categories, parts-of-speech);
• the impact of figuration on various types of discourse: politics, economics, business, media, public sphere, advertising, story-telling, narrative, law, science, medicine, healthcare, illness, education, poetry, sports, religion, etc.;
• corpus-based, experimental and multivariate statistical approaches to figuration;
• diachronic and sociocultural approaches to figuration; figuration and language change and variation;
• figuration from body, culture and society;
• figuration and ideology;
• figuration and rhetoric, persuasion and manipulation;
• figuration, creativity and blending;
• figuration and artificial intelligence;
• figuration and emotion;
• figuration and problem solving in business, politics, education, healthcare, counselling, psychotherapy and conflict situations (war, terrorism, climate change, igration, racism, globalization, populism);
• figuration and cognitive development: figurativeness acquisition, processing and comprehension;
• figuration and language teaching and pedagogy;
• multimodal figuration: figuration in images, music and gestures;
• figurative gestures and figuration in sign languages;
• humor, irony, sarcasm;
• antithesis, antiphrasis, euphemism, hyperbole, hypallage, simile, synecdoche, synesthesia and other understudied figures or “rhetorical tropes”;

Theme sessions

Deadline: 10 February 2018. Notification: 28 February 2018

Theme session organizers should submit their theme session proposals directly to the conference organizers (by email: ftl4@braga.ucp.pt) either in a .pdf or a .doc(x) format. Theme session proposals should include: session title, name and affiliation of the theme session convener, a description of the topic and research questions (no more than 1000 words excluding references), a list of the authors and titles of the individual papers, and all abstracts for the theme session in a suitable order

The maximum length of the theme session is 12 slots. Papers in each theme session should be thematically linked. We strongly encourage diversity at the level of the affiliations involved at the theme session. Theme session conveners are encouraged to distribute a CFPs in the LinguistList (please, announce your CFP as a theme session of FTL4 – Figurative Thought and Language 2018) and other fora.

Once the theme session has been accepted as a whole, theme session authors will need to submit their abstracts for review (following the guidelines below).

Submission of abstracts

The deadline for all abstracts is 31 March 2018. Notification of acceptance will be given by 30 April 2018.

Presentations will last 25 minutes in total (20 minutes for paper presentation and 5 minutes for questions). This 25-minute slot will be followed by 5 minutes for room changes.

All submissions for presentations should follow the following abstract guidelines:

• The language of the conference is English. Submissions on languages other than English are encouraged.
• The abstract, either in a .pdf or a .doc(x) format, should be sent to the following address: ftl4@braga.ucp.pt.
• Abstracts should not exceed 500 words (including examples, and excluding figures and references), and should include 5 keywords and state research questions, approach, method, data and (expected) results.
• All abstracts will be reviewed anonymously by three referees of the Scientific Committee.
• Please do not mention the author’s name, institution or address in the abstract.
• The subject header of your email should include: FTL4 – name/s.
• Please include the following information in the main body of your email: (1) name of author/s, (2) affiliation, (3) title of the presentation, (4) email address, (5) postal address.

SUBMITTING MULTIPLE PAPERS. In order to guarantee diversity, nobody is allowed to present or co-present more than three papers (one or two as the first author and one or two as co-author).