CALL FOR PAPERS Pop Cultural Linguistics: Researching and Theorizing Performed Language and Communication (25 and 26 February 2027, University of Salento, Lecce, Italy)
Organized by Francesca Bianchi (University of Salento), Valentin Werner (University of Bamberg) & Janina Wildfeuer (University of Groningen) The study of mass-media-distributed pop-cultural artifacts – such as songs, films, television series, comics, video games, and so on – is becoming increasingly widespread in academia due to their enormous reach and the fact that they constitute a significant portion of contemporary everyday communication with potentially significant social influence. In this regard, it should be noted that language, as a central creative component of pop-cultural communication, has received increased attention, and that the linguistic analysis of relevant uses has established itself as a branch of research known as Pop Cultural Linguistics, dedicated to the study of performed language and its specific conditions of production and reception in relevant contexts. Within this emerging paradigm, approaches that focus on the interaction of linguistic, social, and cultural factors play a particularly important role, among other things to highlight that pop-cultural artifacts are not simply commercial (entertainment) products but always also convey and construct social meaning. Another evident form of interaction in these artifacts occurs with other modalities (music, images, gestures, etc.) and the overall meaning-making potential these multimodal ensembles create. To take account of the increasing relevance attributed to the study of performed language and to highlight how current research contributes to its analysis and theorization, the conference Pop Cultural Linguistics: Researching and Theorizing Performed Language and Communication invites contributions from all linguistic subdisciplines (comprising, for example, sociolinguistics, stylistics, pragmatics, register studies, cognitive linguistics, translation studies, applied linguistics, etc.) using qualitative and quantitative as well as multi-method approaches (corpus analysis, conversation analysis, surveys, discourse analysis, etc.). Papers that revolve around the following guiding research questions/topics are sought: ● How are various semiotic resources dynamically combined in pop-cultural artifacts to create meaning(s)? ● How do pop-cultural artifacts contribute to the construction and stylization of social identities (e.g., ethnicity, gender) and to the creation of (cultural) authenticity? ● How are languages, varieties and the representation of multilingualism used for purposes of characterization? ● How does performed language reproduce or resist ideologies and power structures? ● How is humor and irony created linguistically and multimodally in pop-cultural artifacts? ● Which conceptual metaphors and cognitive frames are prevalent in performed language? ● Which linguistic and multimodal features are (consciously) employed to make pop-cultural artifacts resonate with audiences and to potentially create emotional experiences? ● How are the aforementioned concepts addressed in the context of the localization/translation of pop-cultural artifacts, and what implications does this have for applied linguistic areas? ● How can pop-cultural artifacts be used in the context of institutional first and additional language education and what is their role in informal language learning/acquisition? ● How can insights from other disciplines, like sociology, semiotics, literary and cultural studies, film studies, intermedial studies, multimodality studies, etc. inform the study of performed language? ● How can analyses of pop-cultural products be meaningfully triangulated with research on producer and audience perspectives? ● Which role does the use of LLMs and/or LMMs play in the creation of pop-cultural artifacts and which implications does this have? ● How does the analysis of performed language and its specific production circumstances impact on the conceptualization of longstanding linguistic dichotomies like written-spoken or formal-informal? The following scholars have kindly agreed to deliver plenaries: ● Astrid Ensslin, University of Regensburg ● Maria Pavesi, University of Pavia ● Roman Schneider, Leibniz Institute for the German Language & University of Mannheim ● Raffaele Zago, University of Catania While the main working language of the conference will be English, contributions on other languages are especially encouraged. The organizers will further organize dedicated sessions where contributors can present in languages other than English (e.g. Spanish, Italian, French, etc.) if applicable. This conference is planned as an in-person event with presentation slots comprising 20 minutes + 10 minutes Q&A. There will be an award for best paper by a junior researcher, kindly sponsored by John Benjamins. Please submit your abstracts (300 words + references in APA7 format) by 15 September 2026 from the Call for Abstracts page of the conference website (https://pop2027.unisalento.it). You will receive a notification on the outcome of the review process in November 2026. If accepted, the final/revised abstract is due 20 January 2027. Further information on the conference website: https://pop2027.unisalento.it
