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[Commlist] CFP: Discourse, Authority and Manipulation in Multimodal Perspective

Fri Sep 16 20:39:18 GMT 2022





CFP
Discourse, Authority and Manipulation in Multimodal Perspective (DAMMP 2023)


Conference organised by IDEA at The University of Lorraine (Nancy) – 16^th -17^th  March 2023

Discourse emanates from various sources, some of which may be considered to be more authoritative than others. The knowledge available from these sources is “taught and learned”, “produced and used”, “sold and consumed” (Van Dijk 2011: 33). This raises the central epistemological question of the sources of knowledge, and for what purpose knowledge is disseminated. Sources which command authority set “knowledge standards” (Ibid.). These standards give rise to the theory of “epistemic vigilance”, in which “interaction among epistemically vigilant agents is likely to generate not only psychological but also social vigilance mechanisms” (Sperber et al. 2010: 361). To what extent do the information sources which constitute a “sociology of knowledge” reveal a correlation between authority in discourse and access to knowledge?


The link between the concept of manipulation and Critical Discourse Studies (CDS) is well-established (Van Dijk 2006). Manipulation in discourse takes place primarily “by text and talk” and “is a form of talk-in-interaction” linked to power and abuses of power (Ibid.: 360). As manipulation occurs within the mind, the cognitive processes that govern it lend themselves to a cognitive approach (Ibid.). Certain genres pose increasing challenges for CDS. Firstly, growing political scepticism, coupled with the public’s need for “a simple and understandable world in times of uncertainty and insecurity”, has resulted in people looking to the fictionalisation of politics in the media (Wodak 2011: 206). Secondly, technological advances in the twenty-first century have facilitated the development and proliferation of new forms of media. These forms of “ephemeral media” (Grainge 2011) have changed the rapidity with which information can be transmitted, while video-sharing platforms can result in traditional segments of discourse becoming fragmented.


Consequently, there has been a recent turn towards multimodality in CDS, with increasing amounts of information processed through the “visual channel” (Hart 2016: 336). A major contribution to the multimodal approach is Systemic Functional Multimodal Discourse Analysis (SF-MDA) (O’Halloran and Lim 2014; O’Halloran et al. 2019). Inspired by Systemic Functional Linguistics (Halliday and Matthiessen 2014), SF-MDA uses multimodal analytic methods involving “mathematical techniques and scientific visualizations” (O’Halloran and Lim 2014: 148). Multimodal approaches have “a view of meaning as being greater than the sum of its parts”, in which “meaning in any communicative act is not just a product of the individual modes that contribute to it but of the interplay between them” (Hart and Marmol Queralto 2021: 530-531).


The discursive picture can be enhanced by gesture analysis, which provides for a coordinated message with speech (Kendon 2004; Streeck 2009). Specifically, the “impulse to gesture” occurs “at the interface between a cognitive-linguistic system and a face-to-face communication context” (Harrison 2018: 214). To this extent, gestures cannot be reduced to the mere externalisation of “pre-existing mental representations by means of body movements” (Kita and Alibali 2017: 262). Gesture, like multimodality in general, may demonstrate semiotic convergence with language, but does such convergence exist in manipulative contexts?


Although manipulation may involve an epistemic shift away from fact, how should manipulation be analysed in genres of fiction which contain elements of fact or reality? The concept merits further exploration (Sorlin 2016, 2017), as fictional discourse “mirrors the ordinary functioning of language used to mediate social interactions in everyday life” (Sorlin 2017: 143).


The conference is open to papers which adopt a linguistic approach to manipulative discourse through multimodal analysis, focusing on English. Themes may include SF-MDA approaches, social semiotics or other multimodal approaches, focusing on official or unofficial sources, specialised areas of discourse (including, for example, political discourse, media discourse or scientific discourse), or the use of manipulation in genres of fiction. Other themes will be considered on merit.

Keynote speakers

Gaëlle Ferré, Professor of Linguistics, University of Poitiers

Simon Harrison, Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics, City University of Hong Kong

Christopher Hart, Professor of Linguistics, Lancaster University

Call for papers


We invite participants to submit an abstract (in English or French) not exceeding 500 words, plus 5 or 6 keywords. Papers may be given in English or French and will be allocated 20 minutes, with follow-up questions during the session. Abstract submissions must include two separate Word formats: one anonymised, the other containing the name(s), affiliation(s) and email address(es) of the author(s) in addition to the title of the paper. All abstracts will be sent for anonymous peer review by the Scientific Committee. The Organiser and Scientific Committee reserve the right to request modifications to the abstract as a condition of acceptance. Parallel sessions may be used where appropriate. Some papers will be published.

The extended deadline for submissions is Monday 3rd October 2022. Decisions will be communicated by e-mail by Monday 31^st  October 2022. Please send all submissions with the subject “DAMMP 2023” to Robert Butler:


*Mail: (robert /dot/ butler /at/ univ /hyphen/ lorraine /dot/ fr) <mailto:(robert /dot/ butler /at/ univ /hyphen/ lorraine /dot/ fr)>*


Scientific Committee

Robert Butler, Alan Cienki, Gilles Col, Belinda Crawford, Nuria Edo-Marzá, Denis Jamet, Juan Carlos Palmer-Silveira, Linda Pillière, Miguel Ruiz-Garrido, Sandrine Sorlin, Sabine Tan, Ronghua Wang, Janina Wildfeuer, Suwei Wu

Registration

While it is anticipated that participants will be able to attend the conference in person, a hybrid format will also enable participants to follow the conference online. The University of Lorraine asks for a registration fee than not less than 50 euros, whatever the format of the conference. A website specifically for the conference will be available shortly.

For full details, please go to: https://idea.univ-lorraine.fr/sites/default/files/2022-03/DAMMP%202023%20-%20full%20CFP%20on%20IDEA_2.pdf


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