Experimental and empirical approaches to grammatical expressions of speaker attitude

University Of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign, Urbana IL

Investigators

Abstract

This award will assist in support of a conference that will bring together experts in the fields of Linguistics, Social and Experimental Psychology, Cognitive Science, and Foreign Languages to discuss the latest developments in research on social and emotive factors affecting language production and comprehension and new empirical methodologies to study them. Six leading scholars in linguistic pragmatics and im/politeness research, three from North America and three from overseas, will deliver plenary lectures over the 2-½ day conference. In addition, approximately 70 papers and posters will be presented in three parallel sessions. The conference 'Experimental and Empirical Approaches to Politeness and Impoliteness' is an international and interdisciplinary conference that will take place at the University of Illinois Urbana campus from August 29-31, 2012 and will focus on experimental and data-intensive analyses of the effect of speaker attitude on grammatical expression. A central goal of the conference is to identify new areas of empirical engagement with the topic including online and offline experimental measures, and to help forge new international collaborations in these areas. A broader aim is to help reinvigorate the links forged in the 1970s between linguistic theory and research on expressions of attitude and social relations that lie at the intellectual roots of the discipline. Additionally, the conference will help align theoretical advances in the field of linguistic im/politeness with applications in industry, education, and policy-making. The conference will provide an important venue for students and junior researchers to learn about on-going work in Linguistics and related fields that impacts the study of civility and to develop professional relationships. A selection of papers identified through peer review will be published in a volume edited by members of the organizing committee. This volume will extend awareness of the latest research in this interdisciplinary area to a broader scholarly community, and will contribute to our understanding of cross-cultural differences in the grammatical expression of speaker attitude and affinity.