[Commlist] Exploring Real-life, Fictional and Virtual Dialogue: Similarities, Differences and Complementarities (Conference)

Conference

Vilnius, Lithuania

Date: 11/06/2024 - 13/06/2024
Registration deadline: 29/04/2024
Call for papers ending on: 29/10/2023

Conference Theme



Like previous ESTIDIA conferences, the forthcoming 2024 ESTIDIA conference
puts dialogue and dialogic forms of communication in the spotlight, as front
and centre of all forms of human communication. This time the focus is on
exploring real-life, fictional and virtual dialogues in terms of 
similarities
and differences, overlaps and complementarities, constancy and change. To
understand the context-driven, situation-based and culture-specific 
impact of
dialogic communication patterns, it is essential to examine in situ
instantiations of dialogue as social interaction practice, as jointly 
steered
activity, as philosophical or scientific method of inquiry, as rhetorical
process of co-reflection, as pedagogical approach, as problem-solving tool,
as mechanism of ethical and political scrutiny (Ilie 2022). Theoretical and
empirical studies have explored dialogues in various forms of verbal
communication: oral and written, private and public, multi-level 
(between two
or several interlocutors, with or without an overhearing audience),
synchronous and asynchronous (e.g., face-to-face vs. computer-mediated).



Laying the foundations of the ethical tradition of thought, Socrates and his
follower Plato repeatedly upheld
the high value of education through dialogue, which is meant to encourage
critical thinking
(Politis 2015). In their dialogues, they logically question the
interlocutor’s opinions and beliefs, while irony is used to call into
question the attitude of the interlocutor (Candiotto 2017). From such a
perspective, an interesting challenge would be to explore and compare the
underlying layers of logical argumentation and irony of real-life dialogue
with the multi-level intricacies of fictional or virtual dialogue (Bohman,
2004; Wade and Fauske, 2004). Using a cross-disciplinary approach, Rockwell
(2003) already proposed a comparison of the roles of dialogue in the 
works of
ancient philosophers, through the Renaissance, pre-modern and contemporary,
to current forms of dialogue on the Internet. On the practical side, during
the 20th century and early 21st century, updated frameworks of dialogue have
been designed and applied, especially in the Anglo-Saxon world, in
psychotherapy, in legal settings, in context of conflict mediation, and in
health-care settings.



Dialogue-driven French and Italian literature of the Renaissance (Tullia
d’Aragona 1547; Sperone Speroni 1542) reinvigorated the dialectical virtues
of the dialogic genre of classical antiquity and its rhetorical features,
e.g., in utramque partem debate (characters voicing both sides of the
argument), enhanced by probing question and answer patterns. Thereby,
dialogue acquired full status as a literary genre in the so-called “age of
the dialogue” (Cox 1992).



The extent to which naturally occurring dialogue is similar to, but also
different from literary conversations has been researched within the 
field of
stylistics (e.g., Hughes 2010; Short 2015; Simpson 2004; Thomas 2012). 
Hughes
(2005) found that in the 18th century not only does the dialogue influence
the novel, becoming one of its important components, but the two genres
overlap considerably, enabled by the increasing exchanges of ideas in the
public sphere. An influential analytical model was developed by Leech and
Short (2007/1981) to account for the range of speech and thought 
presentation
forms and their effects in novels written in English. The model was later
tested and further developed by Semino and Short (2004) through a
corpus-based approach. Seeking to capture the distinguishing features of
drama dialogue compared to real-life dialogue, Burton (1980) outlined an
innovative literary-linguistic stylistics based on discourse analysis that
accounts for the utterance-by-utterance organization of dramatic texts and
the rule-governed behaviour of interlocutors in naturally occurring
conversation. In a similar vein, Mandala (2007) carried out in-depth
investigations into how the dialogue of four modern plays ’works’ with
respect to the pragmatic and discursive norms postulated for ordinary
conversation.



The ubiquity and multiple reverberations of dialogue across casual, 
fictional
or virtual encounters are reflected in the cognitive and emotional effects
brought about by successive social and cultural evolutions and changes, 
which
can be captured by appropriately contextualized transdisciplinary and
multilayered approaches. Television dialogue, an example of “screen-to-face
discourse” (Bubel 2006: 46), is somehow similar to other kinds offictional
and mediated dialogues in featuring different communicative layers or 
levels:
the communication within the diegesis (interaction among on-screen 
characters
in the fictional world), and the communication with the narrative’s
external audience. An insightful comparison between the dialogic
configuration of a popular American television situation comedy (Friends)and
the dialogue of naturally occurring conversation was carried out by Quaglio
(2009) to find out to what extent interactions in TV dialogues capture the
linguistic characteristics of natural conversation. The functions that
dialogue typically fulfils in a film have been consistently analyzed by
Kozloff (2000), who combined narrative theory and drama theory to identify
the special relationship of verbal exchanges with moving images, soundtracks
and narratives, meant to appeal to the spectator.



In spontaneous conversational dialogue, the Gricean implicature can be seen
as the basis of traditional rhetorical figures such as metaphor, hyperbole
and irony. When such figures are at odds with the principle of cooperation,
they serve to convey changing attitudes during dialogue, including 
(im)polite
agency, tension and conflict. Within particular frames of references,
dialogue is associated or equated with conversation, but its scope is
actually wider and deeper, reinforced by elements of historical and
socio-cultural heritage. According to Mildorf and Thomas (2017: 4), dialogue
“is also about emergence and becoming, and about refusing closureand
finalisation”, while Womack (2011: 6) considers that “dialogue is the
discursive form of democracy”.



Above all, dialogue is pursuing goals relevant to the medium in which it
features, including multimodal and transmedial environments. From this
perspective, AI (Artificial Intelligence) involves and is related to 
dialogue
in a variety of ways. Video chatting is becoming an ever more common formof
communication, which can explain why face-to-face conversations sometimesmay
seem obsolete (Turkle 2015). AI can also be used to analyze and interpret
conversation data, helping, for example, to improve customer service, to
detect fraud, and more. Reicherts et al. (2022) have explored Chatbots as a
popular form of Conversational User Interface (CUI), widely used for 
customer
service applications. At the same time, an experimental investigation was
conducted by Someya and Iio (2022) in order to understand how philosophical
dialogue with a robot differs from philosophical dialogue with a human. At
the same time, the dialogue format makes it possible for ChatGPT (Chat
Generative Pre-trained Transformer) to answer follow-up questions, admit its
mistakes, challenge incorrect premises, and reject inappropriate requests.



While rapid progress in AI is arousing excitement as well as fear, there is
increasing anxiety about AI-based dialogue, regarding the way people relate
to knowledge and think about themselves. Challenges concerning AI-related
dialogue are increasingly motivating us to seek new and creative ways to
develop meaningful paradigms of AI-enabled human-human interactions, 
human-AI
interactions, human-centred AI-AI interactions. Potential applications of
ChatGPT were investigated by Shahriar and Hayawi (2023) in various domains,
where healthcare, education, and research are highlighted. Despite promising
results, there are several privacy and ethical concerns, such as some
ChatGPT’s responses that involve race and gender bias, as well asissues
about copyright and plagiarism.



Within the broad theme of the conference, participants are invited to 
explore
a range of questions concerning dialogue genres, dialogue practices and/or
dialogue strategies, in relation to roles and goals of dialogue 
participants,
to convergent or divergent speech acts, to common ground and shared
knowledge.

The questions participants are called upon to consider, analyse and debate
include, but are not limited to, the following:

In what ways and according to which discursive and/or rhetorical dimensions
do various types of dialogue vary across languages and cultures?To what
extent are the structural and functional patterns of various types of
dialogues intertwined in specific dialogic genres (e.g., media dialogue,
drama dialogue, educational dialogue)?How can real-life, fictional and
virtual dialogues be distinguished from each other in terms of linguistic
design, dialogic cues, key words and/or discourse markers?Is television
dialogue expected to sound like naturally occurring conversation, or to
purposefully diverge from spontaneous talk, or both?What theoretical and
methodological approaches are best suited for researching the interfaces of
real-life, fictional, and/or virtual dialogue?In what ways are particular
keywords and speech acts used in particular dialogic interactions to
manipulate and/or reproduce otherness?What is the role of (social) media,
films, literature, and popular culture in shaping both concepts 
(imaginaries)
and experiences of dialogue?In what ways is mutual trust perceived in
face-to-face interaction? How is mutual trust affected by the conditions of
virtual interaction?How much do cross-European dialogues reveal about
interaction paradigms in individual European cultures?How is ChatGPT 
going to
change the way we think, communicate and interact with each other?To what
extent have the dialogic patterns between humans and machines been
foreshadowed in fictional and/or film dialogue? How do they confirm or
disconfirm the predictions?How does knowledge (a)symmetry influence
terminology preferences of different user groups in specialised 
communication
and specialised discourse?[SR1] [1] [VM2] [2] What challenges does
translation (as a cultural phenomenon, industry, profession) face in
cross-cultural dialogue under the conditions of globalisation? How do
technological developments affect translation industry and translator
education? What is the future of translation as a field of practice
conditioned by the rapid advancement of AI?
Keynote speakers



Cornelia Ilie, Strömstad Academy, Sweden

Manfred Kienpointner, University of Innsbruck, Austria

Lora Tamošiūnienė, King Sejong Institute, Mykolas RomerisUniversity,
Lithuania

Jurga Cibulskienė, Vilnius University, Lithuania

Michael Kranert, University of Southampton, United Kingdom



Methodological Workshops



Suggestions for methodological workshops are welcome.



Thematic Workshops



Thematic workshop: InTranslation (for more information please see the
previous InTranslation 2022 workshop In Translation | 2022 (mruni.eu) [3])



Further suggestions for thematic workshops are welcome.



We invite proposals for Methodological or Thematic Workshops. They should
cover a topic of relevance to the theme of the conference. Proposals should
contain relevant information to enable evaluation on the basis of 
importance,
quality, and expected output. Each workshop should have one or more
designated organizers. Proposals should be 1-2 pages long and include at
least the following information:



The workshop topic and goals, their significance, and their appropriateness
for ESTIDIA 2024The intended audience, including the research areas from
which participants may come, the likely number of participants (with someof
their names, if known)Organizers’ details: a description of the main
organizers’ research and publication background in the proposed topic; and
complete addresses including webpages of the organizers
Abstract Submission



We invite submissions of abstracts both for individual paper presentations
(20 minutes for presentation, to be followed by 10 minutes for questions) to
be scheduled in parallel sessions, and for paper presentations within
thematic workshops. The thematic workshop format will be determined by the
workshop organisers, taking into consideration the correlation of
topics/sub-topics and the number of participants.



All abstracts should include the name, institutional affiliation and email
address of the author(s), the paper title, and four-five keywords. The
abstract should be approximately 500 words in length.



All abstracts will be peer-reviewed by the conference scientific committee
according to the following criteria: originality and/or importance of topic;
clarity of research question and purpose; data sources; theoretical 
approach;
analytical focus; relevance of findings if already available. We especially
encourage abstract submissions from early-career researchers, including
postgraduate research students and postdoctoral researchers.



N.B: The methodological workshops are particularly intended for postgraduate
students and early career scholars, whose participation is encouraged.
Attendance at the conference methodological workshops is free, but prior
booking is essential. There is, however, a limit on the number of places in
the methodological workshops – a maximum of 40 people. Registration in
advance is required. Please register for the workshops on the conference
website.



Email abstract submissions to: (estidia24 /at/ mruni.eu) [4]



Conference languages: English, Italian, French, Spanish, German



Important Dates



Deadline for workshop proposals:
                                      01
October 2023

Workshop proposal
notification:
25 October 2023

Deadline for abstract submission:

30 October 2023

Abstract review notification:

25 November 2023

Early bird registration:

20 January 2024 - 29 February 2024

Standard registration opens:

1 March 2024 - closes 31 May 2024

Registration fee



The early bird registration fee for paper presenters (by 1 March 2024) 
is 100
EURO. The late registration fee (after 1 March 2024) is 120 EURO.



The early bird registration fee for students is 50 EURO. The late student
registration fee (after 1 March 2024) is 70 EURO.



The early attendant registration fee is 80 EURO. The late attendant
registration fee is 100 EURO.



Participation in the conference methodological workshops is free (40 
places):
20 places are booked for conference attendants and the other 20 can be 
booked
by conference participants. Registration in advance is required. Please
register for the workshops on the conference website.



The conference fee includes the conference bag, refreshments/coffee breaks
and a guided excursion in the Old Town of Vilnius on 13 June (Thursday, Day2
of the conference).



As a post-conference trip – a trip to Trakai, a medievial Lithuanian
capital with a castle on a lake (after the conference, for an extra fee, on
15 June, Saturday) Trakai - Wikipedia [5]



Please check our Conference website https://estidia2024.mruni.eu/ [6]for
registration details (bank account, etc.).

Publication procedure



Accepted papers (following editorial review) can be included in the
conference proceedings published in International Journal of Cross-Cultural
Studies and Environmental Communication (ISSN 2285 – 3324). Authors of
high-quality papers will be given the opportunity to have their papers
reviewed in view of publication in top international journals (whose profile
matches the research and thematic focus of the individual papers).

Participants will have the possibility to submit individual papers to be
reviewed for inclusion in a collective volume published with a high-impact
international academic publisher. The publisher Mouton de Gruyter has 
already
expressed interest for an edited collection in the Interdisciplinary
Linguistics [7] book series, based on thematically related conference papers
(deriving from contributions to one or two of the thematic workshops).

A volume of proceedings (containing reviewed papers presented at the
conference) will be published at MRU journal Societal Studies Societal
Studies (mruni.eu) [8]



Scientific Committee



Pilar Blitvich (University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA)

Belinda Blanche Crawford (University of Calabria, Italy)

Bart Garssen (University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

Michael Haugh (University of Queensland, Australia)

Cornelia Ilie (Strömstad Academy, Sweden)

Catalina Iliescu (University of Alicante, Spain)

Manfred Kienpointner (University of Innsbruck, Austria)

Monika Kopytowska (University of Lodz, Poland)

John McKeown (Uskudar American Academy, Turkey)

Cezar Ornatowski (San Diego State University, USA)

Esther Pascual (Shanghai International Studies University, China)

Daniela Rovenţa-Frumușani (University of Bucharest, Romania)

Stephanie Schnurr (University of Warwick, UK)

Sylvia Shaw (University of Westminster, UK)

Maria Sifianou (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece)

Villy Tsakona (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece)

Keiko Tsuchiya (Waseda University, Japan)

Daniel Weiss (University of Zürich, Switzerland)

Francisco Yus (University of Alicante, Spain)

Sole Alba Zollo (University of Naples Federico II, Italy)

Viktorija Mažeikienė (Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania)

Liudmila Mockienė (Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania)

Giedre Valunaite Oleskeviciene (Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania)

Sigita Rackevičienė (Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania)

Lora Tamošiūnienė (Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania)

Linas Selmistraitis (Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania)

Vilhelmina Vaičiūnienė (Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania)

Eglė Selevičienė (Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania)



Organizing Committee



Viktorija Mažeikienė (Mykolas Romeris University, Vilnius, Lithuania)
coordinator

Liudmila Mockienė (Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania)

Giedre Valunaite Oleskeviciene (Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania)

Sigita Rackevičienė (Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania)

Lora Tamošiūnienė (Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania)

Vilhelmina Vaičiūnienė (Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania)

Linas Selmistraitis (Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania)

Eglė Selevičienė (Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania)

Arnaud Parent (Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania)

Julija Jančak (Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania)

Vitalija Karaciejūtė (Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania)

Akvilė Šimėnienė (Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania)

Renata Valūnė (Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania)

Olga Ušinskiene (Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania)

Nadežda Jarmolo (Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania)

Tautvydas Griškevičius (Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania)

Contact



Please check the Conference website https://estidia2024.mruni.eu/
[9]periodically or send inquiries to: (estidia24 /at/ mruni.eu) [10]


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