This hybrid workshop aims to bring together researchers working with an explicit focus on the role of pragmatics in the evolutionary emergence of language.

Submission Guidelines

All papers must be original and not simultaneously submitted to another journal or conference. The following paper categories are welcome:

• Full papers (both online and on site - please indicate which mode of presentation you intend for your proposal) for papers of 40 minutes (25 presentation + 15 discussion)  on the role of pragmatics in the emergence and evolution of language as a tool for communication in the hominin clade 

List of Topics

• to what extent was pragmatic competence foundational to the emergence of language?
• were the earliest forms of language (protolanguage in the literature) more akin to the vocal or gestural communication systems seen in other species, before human-type pragmatic aspects of cognition were in place?
• what is the balance between biological and socio-cultural factors in the nature and evolutionary development of these cognitive processes?
• can the answer to these questions shed light on the fundamental question of when language first appeared in humans or one of our ancestral species?
• what constitutes evidence and what methodological forms of inquiry are most appropriate in the exploration of evolutionary cognitive and linguistic pragmatics?

Committees

Organizing committee

• Andrew Feeney andrew.feeney@northumbria.ac.uk   

•  

  Billy Clark billy.clark@northumbria.ac.uk          @billylinguist  

Invited Speakers

• Thom Scott-Phillips, Central European University, Budapest
• Nikolaus Ritt, Vienna University
• Christophe Heintz, Central European University, Budapest
• Andrew Feeney, Northumbria University
• Rachel Bailes, Newcastle University.

Venue

The conference will be held in Kanazawa, Japan

Contact

All questions about submissions should be emailed to Andrew Feeney: andrew.feeney@northumbria.ac.uk