Department of English Philology at University of Warmia and
Mazury in Olsztyn, Poland warmly invites scholars to attend the
international linguistic conference:
POST-NEWTONIAN MODELS OF THE
WORLD AND NEW PARADIGMS IN
LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION
STUDIES
September 2-3 (Monday-Tuesday), 2013
FIRST CIRCULAR
The turn of the 21st century has brought philosophical and methodological shifts in
several sciences. We hear about the emergence of new mathematics, new physics,
new biology, and new genetics. Forefront linguistic research leaves the monodisciplinary road of cognitive grammar and cognitive linguistics, which dominated
linguistics of the second half of the 20th century, and enters the multi-disciplinary
field of research on man living and communicating within all-that-is – within global
and universal contexts.
Cognitivism in linguistics was the first step towards intellectually satisfying
and applicationally potent research on language and communication. We came to
new understandings. We could propose novel, helpful strategies in education,
translation studies, public communication, or therapeutic programs. The problem
with the cognitive approach is that the research chose the human mind and the
collective mind (culture/society) as its ultimate reference points. In other words, for
20th century linguistics, there was not much to study beyond the mind of the
communicator (whether the individual or the collective), which was limiting in the
sense that the mechanisms of the mind are to a considerable extent based on recreation rather than creativity and complete communicational sovereignty.
Now, with the emergence of new world models and new theories of how reality
is constructed, we witness a major step that forefront language researchers are taking
towards acknowledging the oneness of the human organism with the material and
non-material constantly pulsating world substance. In new linguistics, the human
communicator co-exists and co-creates their reality with the surrounding
environment; in this sense, we often refer to new linguistics as ecolinguistics – that is,
the study of communication as happening within the communicational ecosystem.
New linguistics offers new insights into the role of the human mind and its
connection to the rest of the context for human communicative behavior being one of
life process. The mind, whether individual or collective, is no longer the ultimate
instance. Rather, it participates in co-creation of the communicator’s world,
exercising a rather technical role of a measuring device which breaks down the
continuum of reality into here-and-now, specified reality of the communicator.
The research topics which emerge today are:
1. What are the consequences of the communicator’s non-conscious intention to
attribute to the mind the role of the ultimate instance in navigating their life
and thinking?
2. What are the consequences of the communicator’s non-conscious intention to
attribute to the collective mental representation (culture, or societal norm) the
role of the ultimate instance in navigating their life and thinking?
3. Can communicators choose different – preferable for them – paradigms to live
by? How this can be done?
4. What is the actual role and nature of human language (built up on convention)
in communication embedded in ever-changing, pulsating context, which never
repeats itself (thus being the opposite of convention)?
5. How can we specify the context for human language and communication?
6. In what sense can we talk about new linguistics being ecological linguistics?
7. What research topics emerge today for ecological linguistics as new
linguistics?
8. What alternations the scientific method has to undergo today?
9. How will research methodology look like in the field of new linguistics?
CALL FOR PAPERS
Scholars are asked to submit abstracts of academic papers, which should not
exceed 200 words.
All abstracts should be submitted by e-mail to the address olc2013@onet.pl before
30 May, 2013. Participants will be notified of the decision about the abstracts
acceptance by 30 June 2013.
Abstracts should be sent together with the filled application form available at the
conference web page http://olc.olsztyn.pl/.
ESSENTIAL INFORMATION
Plenary speakers:
Prof. Dr. Dr.phil. Harald Walach, Europa Universität Viadrina
Prof. dr hab. Stanisław Puppel, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland
Prof. dr hab. Marek Kuźniak, Wroclaw University
Papers and sessions:
We invite all delegates to deliver 20-minute presentations of their papers. Each talk
will be followed by 10 minutes for discussion.
All peer-reviewed papers will be published in a post-conference volume (Peter
Lang).
Conference venue address:
Address: ul. Kurta Obitza 1, 10-725 Olsztyn.
The conference will be held in the comfortable Faculty of Humanities building,
located at the university campus Kortowo II. The conference rooms/halls are
equipped with data projectors.
Payment details:
Conference fee:
300 PLN (200 doctoral students) or 100 EUR; it includes conference materials, coffee
breaks, and lunch meals. The conference fee does not include travel and
accommodation costs.
Payment of the fees must be made by bank transfer to:
Bank Handlowy w Warszawie 92 10 30 12 18 0000 0000 91 13 25 67.
The recipient is Uniwersytet Warmińsko-Mazurski w Olsztynie ul. Oczapowskiego 2,
10-719 Olsztyn.
Title of payment: 524-0405-1104 + participant’s name and surname.
Payment details for participants from abroad:
SWIFT: CITIPLPX
IBAN: PL92 10 30 12 18 0000 0000 91 13 25 67
Accommodation options:
Conference participants are requested to make their accommodation arrangements.
Below, we put two recommended options of accommodation to choose from. Both of
them are in the comfortable vicinity of the Conference venue.
Park Hotel
ul. Warszawska 119, Olsztyn 10-701
tel. (48-89) 524 06 04
http://www.booking.com/hotel/pl/hpparkolsztyn.html?aid=311097;label=hotel87406-plHyOelabbnsHyLAKX3VlAyAS3048000767%3Apl%3Ata%3Ap1%3Ap2%3Aac%3
Aap1t1%3Aneg;sid=1d8a191ed335bcb6e559b211d0fbfb2c;dcid=1&lang=en-gb
Pokoje gościnne „U Żaków” http://www.zak.olsztyn.pl/pokoje.htm
ul. Michała Oczapowskiego 12, 10-719 Olsztyn
tel. (48-89) 523-47-83
Scientific Board:
Marta Bogusławska-Tafelska, PhD
Anna Bączkowska, PhD,
Anna Drogosz, PhD
Organizing committee:
Marta Bogusławska-Tafelska, PhD
Anna Bączkowska, PhD,
Anna Drogosz, PhD
Oksana Korinetska MA,
Katarzyna Wiśniewska MA,
Katarzyna Szeremeta-Kołodzińska MA.