From the 14th to the 15th of December 2017, a workshop devoted to the question “What is a word?” will be held in Zurich, Switzerland. From formal grammar to comparative linguistics, the workshop will examine this question from a variety of different research perspectives. Among the confirmed list of guest speakers are Professor Heather Newell (Université de Québec à Montréal), Dr. Eric Lander (Göteborgs Universitet), and Professor Götz Keydana (Universität Göttingen). Detailed information about the workshop can be found at the website of The Zurich Center for Linguistics at the University of Zurich. The deadline for abstract submissions is the 31st of August 2017.

The 20th International Conference on Cartography and Geoinformation Science will be held in Paris, France from the 25th to the 26th of January 2018. The purpose of the conference is to provide an interdisciplinary research forum to discuss the most recent trends, innovations, and challenges in the field of Cartography and Geoinformation Science. Researchers working within the areas of cartography and toponymy are invited to submit an abstract by the 31 of July 2017. Detailed information about the conference, requirements, and the event timeline can be found at the website.

The 9th International Conference on Historical Lexicology and Lexicography (ICHLL9) will be held from the 20th to the 22nd of June 2018 in Santa Margherita Ligure, Italy. The focus of the conference is to offer scholars a forum for exchanging their research findings on historical lexicology, the history of dictionaries, and the making of historical dictionaries, and will be hosted by the Department of Modern Languages and Cultures of the University of Genova. Proposals for scientific paper and poster presentations are welcomed until the 31st of December 2017; more information on submission requirements can be found at the website.

The 20th International Conference on English Language and Literature (ICELL) will be held in Amsterdam from the 3rd to the 4th of December 2018. Conference organizers are currently accepting abstracts for papers on a variety of topics, including lexicography and lexicology; terminology in translation; and language and globalization. The call for papers is here and the deadline for abstracts is October 31, 2017.

The ICELL 2018: 20th International Conference on English Language and Literature aims to bring together leading academic scientists, researchers and research scholars to exchange and share their experiences and research results on all aspects of English Language and Literature. It also provides a premier interdisciplinary platform for researchers, practitioners and educators to present and discuss the most recent innovations, trends, and concerns as well as practical challenges encountered and solutions adopted in the fields of English Language and Literature.

All honorable authors are kindly encouraged to contribute to and help shape the conference through submissions of their research abstracts, papers and e-posters. Also, high quality research contributions describing original and unpublished results of conceptual, constructive, empirical, experimental, or theoretical work in all areas of English Language and Literature are cordially invited for presentation at the conference. The conference solicits contributions of abstracts, papers and e-posters that address themes and topics of the conference, including figures, tables and references of novel research materials.W

Photo: Joe Kniesek

In Klagenfurt, Austria, a workshop devoted to names, naming, and the digital world will be held on the 10th of December 2017. Called “Namen digital”, this German-language event will take place in conjunction with the Österreichische Linguistiktagung 2017 at the Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt/Celovec. Researchers interested in presenting are encouraged to email abstracts (max. 300 words) by the 31st of August 2017 to marietta.calderon AT sbg.ac.at and herling AT romanistik.uni-siegen.de‎. The original call for papers is here.

From the 8th to the 9th of December 2017, an innovative workshop entitled “Body Part Terms in Linguistic Usage: A Comparative and Typological Perspective” will be held in Warsaw, Poland. Invited speakers include the following: Zygmunt Frajzyngier (University of Colorado, USA); Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk (University of Lodz, Poland); Helma Pasch (University of Cologne, Germany); and Ning Yu (Pennsylvania State University, USA). Abstracts are currently being accepted for 30 minute presentations. The deadline for abstracts is July 30, 2017. Each paper will be given 30 minutes, including 10 minutes for discussion.

The conference organizers invite papers which focus on one specific language or comparative/typological studies. Possible topics to be covered include:

• coding and categorization of body parts
• polysemy and semantic change of body part terms
• conceptualization processes (metaphor, metonymy) via body parts
• expressing emotional concepts through their “embodiment”
• grammaticalization processes
• usage patterns of constructed senses
• corpus studies of body part terms (e.g. frequency, collocations)
• compounding and noun incorporation
• “special” syntax (e.g. inalienable possession, use of pronouns)
• morphological derivation and semantic autonomy
• language-culture issues and idiomatic constructions

The University of Ostrava in the Czech Republic will be holding the Ostrava Onomastic Meeting from the 23rd to the 25th of April 2018. The theme of the conference is “Place Names as a Mirror of Political Developments in Modern European Society 1848 to 2018”. The conference will cover issues such as toponymy and state and national borders; toponymy and politics; toponymy and art; toponymy and ideology. The deadline for abstract submissions is November 20, 2017. Information on this conference can be found at the website.

The conference language is English. The authors are responsible for the content and language of their papers. Presentations of papers should not exceed 15 minutes; PowerPoint presentations are required. The conference organizers plan to publish a book containing papers that are accepted for the conference.

This is a call for participation in a colloquium session on Applied Onomastics at AAAL 2018, to be held in Chicago, IL, March 24-27, 2018. Names figure prominently in our identities and interactions as individuals, families, groups, organizations, and societies. Factors as varied as geography, culture, socioeconomic status, legal constraints, and marketing strategies influence names and naming. The study of names (onomastics), including personal, place, and commercial names, among others, is both multi- and interdisciplinary. Because of the ubiquity and important functions of names, they are also of “enduring interest to the wider public” (Hough 2016), confirmed by the long tradition of collaboration between academics and non-academics in name studies. The aim of this colloquium is to demonstrate how onomastics can offer practical solutions and insights to issues encountered in a wide range of contexts. Proposals are invited on any topic relating to Applied Onomastics, including but not limited to:

names and education
names and media
names and lexicography / name dictionaries
onomastic aspects of marketing and tourism
onomastic aspects of language planning
name-related policies, regulations and laws
onomastics and forensic linguistics
onomastics and psychology or cognition
name-based data mining and technologies
names and bi/multilingualism
cross-cultural naming practices
societal trends in naming
the relationship between Applied Onomastics and Applied Linguistics
the aims of Applied Onomastics as a field

Please send proposals containing a title, key words, abstract (300 words), and brief summary (50 words) by July 10th, 2017 to Maryann Parada (mparada1 AT csub.edu). the Colloquium Organize. Notifications will be sent by July 20th, 2017.