[Commlist] Call for Papers: 8th Middlesex Roundtable on Signs, Language and Communication

*Call for Papers, 8^th  Middlesex Roundtable on Signs, Language and 
Communication*

*Middlesex University London*

*Language and Communication Research Group
*22-24 April 2026*

*THE CONCEPT OF LANGUAGE IN THE 21ST CENTURY*

The Middlesex Roundtable on Signs, Language and Communication is an 
annual conference launched in January 2019 to encourage discussion 
between three paradigms of language and communication theory: the 
Integrationism of Roy Harris and his followers, Biosemiotics and 
Philosophy of Communication. The Roundtable takes place at Middlesex 
University London, 
https://www.mdx.ac.uk/research/research-centres-and-groups/language-and-communication-research-group/

These areas of thought and scholarship share assumptions regarding the 
fundamental role played by communicative interaction in the emergence of 
signification, meaning and relationality. They also share views of 
communication and language that are not limited to the understanding of 
language as a code-based domain.

As usual, the Roundtable is a small-scale workshop, with 10-minute 
presentations and long conversations (flipped conference style). This 
format allows for an in-depth exchange of ideas, open questions, 
speculations and considerations and makes the Roundtable an ideal 
environment to present and discuss work at the frontiers of research in 
our disciplines.

*This year’s theme will be The Concept of Language in the 21st Century.*

It is an exciting time in linguistics and philosophy of language. 
Developments in the leading paradigms for linguistic research have 
generated fundamental questions

regarding the (multi-)modality of language, and developments in computer 
technology, mainly the exponential growth of AI in recent years, have 
brought foundational questions about the concept of language to the 
centre of attention. The relationships between language and cognition, 
language, social structure and social interaction, language and 
non-human communication systems, language and normativity, as well as 
the place of the study of language in the humanities, are all being 
re-drawn because of the waning of once dominant theorisations of the 
nature of language, and the emergence of new perspectives. Large 
Language Models present opportunities to rethink the nature of syntactic 
explanation and linguistic structure while the decolonisation of the 
humanities opens questions on the ontology of language. Advances in 
animal communication studies, the biology of consciousness and genetics 
suggest that the boundaries between human language and other 
communication systems may be more porous than previously thought, while 
also urging renewed reflection on what, if anything, makes human 
language a unique phenomenon in an egalitarian world of coexisting and 
interdependent species. The question, “What do you mean by language?” 
has, once again, become unavoidable. The Roundtable will offer a space 
for reflection and exchange of ideas regarding this question and its 
impact on language study.

We invite abstracts considering this question, from all theoretical and 
philosophical orientations. Please send your abstract (250 words max) to 
(j.siebers /at/ mdx.ac.uk) <mailto:(j.siebers /at/ mdx.ac.uk)>, by 27 February 2026.

***

*Pre-Roundtable Workshop*

*Posthumanist linguistics: challenges and pitfalls*

The Roundtable will take place on 23 and 24 April and will be preceded 
by a Workshop at the Institute of Languages, Cultures and Societies of 
the School of Advanced Study, University of London, on 22 April, from 
13:00-17:00.

This half-day meeting aims to critically engage with the ‘posthumanist 
turn’ in linguistics, which seeks to decentre language by rethinking key 
issues such as agency, anthropocentrism and semiotic complexity. We are 
interested in contributions that critique the language-philosophical 
foundations of posthumanist thinking, its philosophies of communication, 
as well as its practical implications for empirical research, including 
research paradigms and methodology.

We also invite abstracts discussing this topic. Please send your 
abstract (250 words max) to (j.siebers /at/ mdx.ac.uk) 
<mailto:(j.siebers /at/ mdx.ac.uk)>, by 27 February 2026.

/Both events are in-person only. The definitive programme will be 
circulated by mid-March./

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