CFP: Language and perception - Rivista Italiana di Filosofia del Linguaggio

Submission deadline: June 30, 2015

Topic areas

Details

Call for papers - Rivista Italiana di Filosofia del Linguaggio

www.rifl.unical.it

Vol. 9, N. 2/2015: Language and perception

Edited by Felice Cimatti & Alfredo Paternoster

Deadline: 30.06.2015

The relevance of perception to the philosophical and scientific study of language has gradually been newly acknowledged in the course of the last thirty years. This is particularly manifest in the linguistic and psychological approaches to the study of language (e.g., Berlin & Kay 1969; Johnson-Laird 1983; Lakoff 1986; Lee 1996; Barsalou 1999; Paternoster 2001; Bergen & Chang 2005; Mazzeo 2003; Liuzza, Borghi, Cimatti 2012; Borghi 2014), but, though in less direct ways, also in semiotics (e.g., Violi 1997; Eco 1997); and in the non-psychologistic analytic reflection on singular reference, stemming from the seminal works by Perry (1980) and Evans (1982), recently re-elaborated by Recanati (2012). In the latter case, perceptual modes of presentations are taken to be among the mechanisms for fixing reference. 

Within the psychological framework (whose main goal is providing an account of the mental mechanisms of understanding), the link between language and perception has become very much closer in the so-called simulative theory, according to which every conceptual representation is perceptual in nature (Barsalou 1999) and language understanding consists in the re-enactement of sensorimotor representations (Gallese & Lakoff 2005; Pulvermueller 2012). Growing evidence for this thesis comes from neuroimaging, neuropsychological and behavioral experiments. However, there are authors who resist to this thoroughly embodied view of language, leaving room for amodal representations (e.g. Mahon & Caramazza 2008, Jackendoff 2002). 

Contributions are welcome aiming to focus on the nature of the link between language and perception, and to address questions such as the following:

-          To what extent does our view of language change as a consequence of the embodied view?

-          What is the relation between structural linguistics and embodiment? Are they compatible?

-          Can we account of language understanding solely in terms of sensorimotor structures?

-          Can a sensorimotor representation of linguistic "negation" exist?

-          What is the relationship between linguistic meanings and sensorimotor representations?

-          What is the current status of the so called Sapir-Whorf hypothesis?

-          What is the perceptual grounding of abstract meanings, e.g., "freedom" or "God"?

-          Do different languages influence the way human beings perceive the world?

-          Are the perceptual abilities of non-linguistic animals similar to those of human beings?

Manuscripts should have a theoretical focus. Papers from the following areas are accepted: philosophy of language, linguistics, semiotics, history of philosophy, psychology and neuroscience.

Submissions may be in Italian, English, French, German, Spanish and Russian. All submissions must be prepared for blind review. The author's name, the institutional affiliation and the title’s paper must be placed in a separate file.  Papers must be sent as Microsoft Word file (.doc or .rtf) to: [email protected]

Instructions for authors:

Max length:
40000 characters (including spaces) for articles (including the references) and reviews;
20000 characters (including spaces) for interviews;
10000 characters (including spaces) for specific paper review.

Submission deadline: June 30, 2015
Notification of acceptance: July, 2015

Issue publication: December 2015

Supporting material

Add supporting material (slides, programs, etc.)