Pragmasophia 5

Alessandro Capone (University of Messina), Igor Douven (Sorbonne University), Mitchell Green (University of Connecticut), Pietro Perconti (University of Messina)
Roberto Graci (University of Messina), Daniele Panizza (University of Messina)

Manuel García-Carpintero – University of Barcelona
Wayne Davis – Georgetown University
Gennario Chierchia – Harvard University
Gabriella Airenti – University of Turin
Valentina Cardella – University of Messina
Louise Cummings – The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Denis Delfitto – University of Verona
Igor Douven – Sorbonne University
Gaetano Fiorin – University of Trieste
Alessandra Giorgi – Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
Roberto Graci – University of Messina
Alison Hall – De Montfort University
Mitchell Green – University of Connecticut
Chusni Hadiati – Jenderal Soedirman University
Michael Haugh – University of Queensland
Enrico Higginbotham – University of Arizona
Kasia Jaszczolt – University of Cambridge
Robin Jeshion – University of Southern California
Paolo Labinaz – University of Trieste
Fabrizio Macagno – Universidade Nova de Lisboa
Michael Nelson – University of California
Nathan Salmon – University of California
Daniele Panizza – University of Messina
Anna Pompei – RomaTre University
Paul Saka – Texas Rio Grande Valley University
Marina Sbisà – University of Trieste
Yael Sharvit – University of California
Francesca Santulli – Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
Jack Wilson – University of Salford
Jock Wong – National University of Singapore
Alessandro Capone – University of Messina

This conference explores the connection between theoretical aspects of pragmatics and philosophy. We still believe that intentions play a fundamental role in communication and that the hearer’s task is mainly to reconstruct those intentions on the basis of what is explicitly said (the semantics of a linguistic expression) and of contextual clues and cues (Dascal 2003). Sometimes, as Mey argues (Mey 2001), a priori knowledge of a frame and a script will determine interpretation even if one partially says what one wants to say. Both bottom-up and top-down inferential processes are involved (see Jasczolt’s notion of merger representations). Pragmatics can be put to use in understanding of philosophical puzzles (see Igor Douven The pragmatics of belief or Capone (2016) on simple sentences and substitution). Implicit indirect reports can, in some cases, be taken to resolve issues.
We welcome contributions in theoretical pragmatics, philosophical pragmatics, societal pragmatics, intercultural pragmatics, clinical pragmatics, pragmatics and cognition, contributions that relate to conversational presuppositions, if-clauses, the pragmatics of ‘de se’ attitudes, proper names, quasi-proper names, proper names as speech acts, pragmemes and speech acts in the cultural context, evolutionary pragmatics, pragmatics and culture, rhetoric and argumentation, pragmatics and the world languages (e.g. Japanese, Persian, Tok Pisin, Papua New Guinea languages, in general, African languages, Asian languages, South American languages, etc.), the pragmatics of funerary rites, natural language semantics, the semantics/pragmatics debate. The organizers will consult with K. Jaszczolt, Mitchell Green, Igor Douven, Yael Sharvit, Louise Cummings, Fabrizio Macagno, Alison Hall, Daniele Panizza, Roberto Graci, Yoko Mizuta, Chusni Hadiati, Alessandra Giorgi for the acceptance of the abstracts and then the selected papers to appear in the book(s). The books are likely to be published in Capone’s series for Springer. https://link.springer.com/series/11797.


Workshop on Evolutionary Pragmatics, organized by Mitchell Green
email: [email protected]

Scholars in recent years have been paying greater attention to diachronic aspects of language use, and much of this work may be bundled under the term evolutionary pragmatics. Questions falling under this rubric include the cultural evolution of phenomena such as conversational turn-taking and of the norms governing speech acts, proto-language as it may have occurred in extinct hominid species or extant non-human animals, the co-evolution of pragmatics and grammar, and the evolution of presupposition accommodation and common ground; the rubric also includes study of how new technologies and political formations affect pragmatic norms. Among texts that are helping to shape the burgeoning field are Geurts and Moore (eds.) Evolutionary Pragmatics: Communicative Interaction and the Origins of Language (Oxford, 2025), Acerbi, Cultural Evolution in the Digital Age (Oxford, 2020), and Adornetti and Ferretti, Evolutionary Pragmatics: How Language Emerges from Use (Routledge, 2024).

The conference committee includes Antonio Barcellona, Anna Cardinaletti, Alessandro Capone, Wayne Davis, Denis Delfitto, Michael Devitt, Igor Douven, Gaetano Fiorin, Giovanni Gobber, Roberto Graci, Enrico Higginbotham, Kasia Jaszczolt, Robin Jeshion, Andreas H. Jucker, Paolo Labinaz, Michael Nelson, Daniele Panizza, Claudio Paolucci, Luigi Pavone, John Perry, Nathan Salmon, Jack Wilson.

We invite submissions on the conference topics. Abstracts must be sent to [email protected] by March 31, 2026. Submissions should be no more than two pages (a maximum of 1,000 words) and include the author’s name and title. The editor will anonymize all abstracts to ensure a blind review process. Notification of acceptance will be sent by April 10, 2026.

The conference fee is 90 euros.
The conference papers will be published in two or three volumes of the Springer series “Perspectives in Pragmatics, Philosophy, and Psychology”, edited by Alessandro Capone.
We welcome contributions from all areas of the world focusing on world languages and cultures.
If you have any additional questions or specific requests, please contact: [email protected].
We also invite you to explore the website: https://alessandro-capone-pragmatics.webnode.it/.