News

14th International Symposium on Iconicity in Language and Literature
             30 May - 1 June 2024 University of Catania, Sicily

First Call for Papers: Deadline (30 November 2023)
Conference website: - http://www.ill14.unict.it/

We invite the submission of abstracts to the 14th Biennial International Symposium on Iconicity in Language and Literature initiated by the Iconicity Research Project, with the first symposium held in Zurich 1997, see http://www.iconicity.uzh.ch/. The Symposium will be held at the Department of the Humanities at the University of Catania, Sicily, in the monumental complex of the former Benedictine monastery, one of the largest in Europe which is now a UNESCO heritage site.

The topic of iconicity – resemblance between form and meaning – continues to be highly relevant for the study of language (in both spoken and signed modalities) and literature, but also for other semiotic systems and media involving gesture, depiction and music, and for interdisciplinary fields such as cognitive science and cognitive semiotics. In addition, there will be a new topic, “Iconicity and embodiment (physiology)", which will be the special topic for the 14th symposium.

Previous symposia have concentrated on iconicity as a driving force in language (both spoken and signed) on all grammatical levels, as well as in language change, language acquisition, and language processing. They have also addressed iconicity in language use across a range of media (from print to performance), incorporating the uses of iconic images, diagrams and metaphors at different levels of abstraction and in all varieties of text and discourse (literary texts, historical texts, political texts, advertising, language and music, word and image, etc.). These possibilities remain open for the 2024 symposium, and we welcome abstracts to topics such as (but not limited to), the following:
* Iconicity in the speech signal (“sound symbolism”, “ideophones”)
* Iconicity in grammar and text
* Iconicity in literature
* Iconicity in philosophy
* Iconicity in signed languages
* Iconicity in gestures
* Iconicity in pictures and other visual media
* Iconicity in music
* Iconicity in intermediality
* Iconicity in narration
* Iconicity in imagination (“mental imagery”)
* Iconicity in metaphors within and across semiotic systems
* Iconicity across sensory modalities (“multimodality” and “cross-modality”)
* Iconicity in evolution
* Iconicity in child development

Keynote speakers:  Vincent Colapietro, Eduardo Lombardi Vallauri, Diego Poli and Patrizia Sorianello.

Given the wide scope of the topic, accepted presentations need to be made accessible for an interdisciplinary audience.  The symposium will be held in Italian and in English.

Abstract submission: We invite abstracts in English or in Italian (450 words maximum, excluding references) of unpublished work for oral presentations, posters, and theme sessions. Proposals should be sent to ill14.unict@gmail.com,
Deadline 30 November 2023. For specific information, including abstract submission, see http://www.ill14.unict.it/.
* Oral papers: 30 minutes + 10 minutes discussion, in two or three parallel sessions.
* Posters: there will be a poster session.

A selected number of essays will be published in the Iconicity in Language and Literature (ILL) series published by John Benjamins, https://benjamins.com/catalog/ill. 

Local Organizing Committee
Iride Valenti - Coordinator
Rita Abbamonte
Marilena Adamo
Gaia Caligiore
Emanuela Campisi
Giuseppe Canzoneri
Tiziana Emmi
Sabina Fontan
Renata Gambino
Alberto Manc
Salvatore Menza
Erika Raniolo
Sophie Saffi 

Permanent Organizing Committee
Prof Dr Olga Fischer
Prof Dr Christina Ljungberg