Schemas in Language, Music, and Visual Cognition

Quick info:

Topic: The schematic basis of meaning in language, music, and visual cognition.

Confirmed plenary speakers: Ray Jackendoff (Tufts / MIT), Todd Oakley (CWRU), Beate Hampe (Erfurt)

Abstract submission to https://forms.gle/bFLkpxz6FEg14uno7, by 1 Aug 2024.

We are pleased to announce the first call for papers for the conference “Schemas in Language, Music, and Visual Cognition,” to be held on December 6th and 7th 2024, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Niš, Serbia. The broader field of interest for the conference is cognitive science, which has yielded a plethora of opportunities for interdisciplinary endeavors that bring together philosophers, psychologists, neuroscientists, linguists, musicologists, media and AI researchers, computer scientists, engineers, and other experts from various fields. Within such a complex area, this conference will tackle the problem of meaning construction, in particular the notion of (conceptual) schematicity, its dynamic nature, potential for interaction, and overall role in generating semiosis.

We cordially invite submissions from linguists, psychologists, computer scientists, musicologists, media researchers and other experts from related fields and disciplines, whose research pursues topics dealing with schematicity in meaning construction in various contexts. Contributions dealing with schematicity related to image schemas, conceptual primitives, cross-modal correspondences, conceptual metaphor and metonymy, multimodality, in language, music and visual cognition will be particularly welcome. Also, we welcome research dealing with schematicity in the broader sense, i.e., studies dedicated to mental models, situation models, and semantic frames, all of which operate at a “macro-schematic” level which has a more pronounced connection with background knowledge structures and provides broader schematic structures of various types of discourse and interactions within the discourse.

Possible topics of interest include, but are not limited to the following:

• Theoretical Frameworks: novel theoretical approaches dealing with schemas in language, music, and visual cognition;
• Discourse studies: investigation of specialized discourse and specialized corpora for the use of schemas and the potential functions that such schemas may perform in those corpora. The possible sets of data for analysis could include written, spoken, or multimodal corpora;
• Cognitive Linguistics: investigations from various fields of Cognitive Linguistics (e.g., Corpus-based Cognitive Linguistics, Cognitive Linguistics and Discourse Analysis, Cognitive Linguistics and Multimodality, Cognitive Pragmatics, Cognitive Semantics, Cognitive linguistics, NLP and Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Grammar, Construction Grammar) dealing with the schematic nature of meaning construction in general;
• Semantic frames: exploring the schematic nature of semantic frames, their recruitment and refinement in specific contexts, their role in the process of online meaning construction; exploring the possible role of metaphorical framing in discourse;
• Psycholinguistics of metaphor comprehension: the investigation of metaphor comprehension, impact of individual differences on metaphor comprehension, impact of context on metaphor comprehension, impact of schematicity on metaphor comprehension;
• Mental models and situation models: exploring the schematic nature of situation models and mental models and their application in discourse modeling;
• Cognitive processing: the exploration of specific cognitive mechanisms underlying the formation, function, and use of schemas across different domains;
• Music cognition: the contribution of cognitive schemas to musical grammar, whether inspired by cognitive- or generative-linguistic frameworks (e.g. Lerdahl and Jackendoff’s Generative Theory of Tonal Music, Zbikowski’s Cognitive Grammar of Music, Larson’s Musical Forces), and to musical semantics (e.g. the conceptualization of music, musical connotation and referentiality); 
• Multimodality: the investigation of the role of conceptual blending in the integration of language, music, and visual elements; exploration of the interplay of language, music and visual elements in the process of meaning construction; design of novel computational models dealing with multimodal cognition; studies on how the principles of embodied cognition factor into the process of meaning construction in the context of multimodality. 
• Computational models: design of novel computational models that incorporate schema-based approaches in understanding language, music, and visual cognition;
• Educational applications: exploration of the implications of schema-based learning strategies in educational contexts, including language acquisition, language learning, music education, and media studies;
• Cultural perspectives: investigation of how some specific cultural factors influence the development and utilization of schemas in various contexts of use.

Confirmed plenary speakers: 

Ray Jackendoff, professor emeritus of philosophy, Tufts University / research affiliate, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA)

Todd Oakley, professor of cognitive science, Case Western Reserve University (USA)

Beate Hampe, professor of linguistics, University of Erfurt (Germany)

Abstract Submission to: https://forms.gle/bFLkpxz6FEg14uno7

Abstract Submission Deadline: August 1st, 2024.

Notifications of acceptance by September 1st, 2024.

Early Bird discount for Conference Fee Payments: 80 EUR (until October 20th  2024)

Regular Conference Fee: 100 EUR. 

Ph.D. Student Conference Fee: 60 EUR.

Payment deadline: November 1st, 2024.

Book of Abstracts will be published by the end of November 2024. 

Conference Program and Panel Schedules will be posted by the end of November 2024.

More practical details, including travel info, will be posted early in the summer. 

The official language of the conference is English. 

E-mail: schemas.conference@filfak.ni.ac.rs

The conference is supported by the Serbian Science Fund through the SCHEMAS project (Structuring Concept Generation with the Help of Metaphor, Analogy and Schematicity, Grant No. 7715934). It is organized jointly by the Faculty of Philosophy and the Center for Cognitive Sciences, University of Niš. 

Academic Committee

Mihailo Antović, Vladimir Ž. Jovanović, Biljana Mišić Ilić, Ivana Mitić, Miloš Tasić, Vladimir Figar, Aleksandra Janić (U Niš), Dušan Stamenković (U Södertörn), Wei-lun Lu, (U Masaryk, Brno), George Athanasopoulos (Humboldt U), Janina Wildfeuer (U Groningen), Robert Kiełtyka (U Rzeszow), Mario Brdar (U Osijek), Renee Timmers (U Sheffield). 

Abstracts submission: https://forms.gle/bFLkpxz6FEg14uno7

Abstracts are invited for an oral presentation (20min)

Abstract should be no more than 300 words long, not including references and up to 5 keywords.