LINGUIST List 27.3860
Thu Sep 29 2016
Calls: Gen Ling, Ling Theories, Philosophy of Lang, Psycholing, Semantics
Editor for this issue: Kenneth Steimel <kenlinguistlist.org>
Date: 29-Sep-2016
From: Deli LARA PEÑA <deli.lara_pena
paris-sorbonne.fr>
Subject: Greimas Today: the Future of Structure - French Association of Semiotics Conference
E-mail this message to a friend Full Title: Greimas Today: the Future of Structure - French Association of Semiotics Conference
Short Title: AFS 2017
Date: 30-May-2017 - 02-Jun-2017
Location: Paris, France
Contact Person: Marine Maréchal
Meeting Email:
< click here to access email > Web Site:
http://www.afs2017.fr
Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics; Linguistic Theories; Philosophy of Language; Psycholinguistics; Semantics
Call Deadline: 20-Oct-2016
Meeting Description:
Greimas Today: the Future of Structure
Semiotics, languages and society
International Conference in commemoration of the centenary of the birth of A. J. Greimas (1917-1992)
The French Association of Semiotics Conference will take place from 30 May to 2 June 2017 under the patronage of UNESCO, at their facilities in Paris. The conference will celebrate the centenary of the birth of A.J. Greimas, one of the important anniversaries this great institution lists for 2017.
The academic focus of this congress is naturally set in the context of Greimas’s work, often called “Greimassian”, given his role as the founder of structural semiotics. Besides honouring a body of work highly representative of structuralism whose influence is still considerable, participants will probe its foundations, show where its proposals fit into the more general context of the sciences of language and meaning, and consider how Greimas’s work has endured and continues to inspire research and creativity today. From an epistemological viewpoint, let us enquire into the relevance of “structuralism” as it was initially, evaluate its transformations and its potential, and envision the “reach” of semiotics into the world and its discourses, both into those fields in the humanities that deal with discourse, and into the social realities that fashion discourses and set them in a perspective, whether dramatic or ordinary.
The conference is structured around four main themes, each of which is concerned with a particular issue of Greimas’s work and its current developments. Each theme combines theoretical investigation with the study of objects and areas of analysis which, in turn, stimulate the search for models: practices of everyday life, art, literature, philosophical discourse, media, political discourse, architecture and urban planning, life sciences, and mathematics.
The general objective of the conference is to examine the theoretical legacy of structuralism (French and international), to give the brilliance of Greimas’s work the acknowledgement it deserves, and especially to stimulate new lines of inquiry through critical reflection on past achievements.
Call for Papers:
Full version of the CFP (also available in French, Spanish and Italian) on the Conference's web site
www.afs2017.fr.
Contact : info
afs2017.fr
Adhering clearly to one of the four themes defined below, proposals may be based on concepts, objects or practices, on theoretical comparisons and interdisciplinary exchanges, or on concrete studies stemming from various areas of specialization in semiotics.
The official language of the congress is French. The other working languages are English, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. If you wish to present in those languages, please plan a slideshow in French.
The proposals (including the name and institutional affiliation of each author, the title, an abstract and a short bibliography - the whole not exceeding 3000 characters including spaces) must be submitted through the conference’s web site (
www.afs2017.fr), under the “Submissions” tab, before October 20, 2016.
Please contact Marine Maréchal (coordinator) at info
afs2017.fr if you have any questions.
1. An academic work in progress: a legacy, its posterity and transformations
Greimas defined and pursued a visionary scientific quest which allowed semiotics to look ahead, to adapt, and to be enriched by interacting and evolving with the scientific paradigms of the second half of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century.
A first set of presentation proposals will evaluate and discuss this legacy, especially with respect to the transformations which enabled transmission and the advances seen in structural semiotics’ intellectual development of the 1960s and 1970s: the new semiotic paradigms, the emergence of complex issues, the evaluation of progress.
2. An area of extended research: discovering the disciplines and their semiologies
From the beginning of structuralism, one of the collective objectives of the humanities and social sciences was to highlight the cross-disciplinary nature of questions of meaning. This aim remains relevant even though a counter-trend has led a number of disciplines to retreat to within their traditional domains. However, the goal of founding a semiology in a form appropriate to each field has not died. Greimassian semiotics maintains this objective, by working to extend its investigations into these specific semiologies, and using them to try and build a cross-disciplinary model. The second set of conference proposals will thus concern the cross-disciplinary relation emerging from these semiologies and in dialogue with them.
3. Models now being tested: validation and refutation
Over the last fifty years Greimassian Semiotics has proposed and tested a significant number of theoretical models, mainly by deduction and construction (tensive semiotics, the semiotics of enunciative agents, the semiotics of interactions, of iconicity, etc.). The progress made during this time in the humanities and social sciences, in neuroscience and cognitive science now enables us to conceive procedures by which these models can be validated or refuted beyond just their descriptive applications. The objective of the third set of contributions will be to examine how new theoretical proposals are validated.
4. The societal challenges of semiotics: involvement in the contemporary world
While semiotics belongs under the sciences of mind and culture, its current expansion covers all social realities and more. Structuralism’s undertaking was aimed at bringing the humanities and social sciences closer to the natural sciences. Moreover, the concrete contributions of semioticians of the last half century have been borrowers and lenders with philosophy, mathematics, ethology and literary production. This is the force behind our major inquiry on the present and future status of the scientific initiative undertaken by Greimas.
Most of the big issues of our time inherently involve the contributions of the humanities and social sciences: the environment, sustainable development, the rights of man and of populations, discrimination, health, access to energy, to information, to education, and more. Semiotics will fulfil its role if it participates with the humanities and social sciences in examining the discourses of these issues, the decision-making processes, systems governance, and the social and anthropological consequences of ongoing and future changes.
Page Updated: 29-Sep-2016