Call for Papers

The call for papers is now closed!

Conference theme: Diversity and uniformity across time and space

Over the past decades, historical sociolinguistics has grown and diversified considerably, contributing to our increasingly multifaceted understanding of language histories. Two key themes that have emerged as overarching research directions in the field are linguistic diversity and linguistic uniformity. On the one hand, historical sociolinguists have studied and uncovered many different facets of linguistic diversity in past societies. These include aspects of both individual and societal multilingualism, historical settings of language contact and conflict, the social embedding of language variation and change, and so on. Diversity in historical sociolinguistics has also been foregrounded by drawing on sources from different genres and domains, and by including language users, networks and communities from a wide range of social backgrounds, regions and periods. On the other hand, historical sociolinguistics has a strong research tradition that focuses on linguistic uniformity. Scholars in the field have addressed topics related to language standardization processes, prescriptivism and purism, and of course language norms more generally, as well as underlying ideologies and beliefs. By investigating sociohistorical and linguistic developments in different regions, periods and comparatively across languages, both ‘from above’ and ‘from below’, traditional models and theories of standardization have been rethought and refined. While diversity and uniformity may be considered as two opposite poles, they could equally be interpreted as two complementary perspectives on language histories. Therefore, in addition to research concentrating on either linguistic diversity or uniformity, we warmly welcome submissions that tackle the complex interplay between linguistic diversity and uniformity in times past.

We invite suggestions for papers relevant to the field of historical sociolinguistics in the broadest sense, that is, research dealing with aspects of language and society in the past, preferably with a link to the central conference theme of Diversity and uniformity across time and space.

Topics and (sub)disciplines might include, but are not limited to:

• Language variation and change

• Historical multilingualism, language contact and code-switching

• Language maintenance, language shift and heritage languages

• Language standardization, norms, prescriptivism and purism

• Language policy and planning in the past

• Language ideologies, beliefs and attitudes

• Language history ‘from below’

• Text types, registers, genres and domains

• Methodological approaches and corpus linguistics

• Historical dialectology and geolinguistics

• Historical pragmatics and discourse analysis

• History of linguistics and history of language teaching.

We welcome abstracts for two different formats (individual papers and thematic panels):

Individual papers are formal presentations on original research by one or more authors, who will be allotted 30-minute slots at the conference (20 minutes for presentation plus 10 minutes for discussion). Abstracts for individual paper presentations should not exceed 500 words (incl. title and references).

Thematic panels, roundtables or workshops should follow the 30-minute structure of the conference. We have a strong preference for shorter, focused events (e.g. an introductory paper, 3-4 papers by different contributors and a final discussion). Panel convenors are expected to invite contributors and discussants in advance, and submit one full proposal. This proposal includes the overall aims and rationale of the event (max. 500 words), as well as the names, affiliations and short abstracts of 200-300 words for each contribution (incl. introductory paper and/or final discussion). Please note that panel convenors take active responsibility for the quality of all contributions and are expected to guide their invited participants through the formal process.

The call for papers is now closed!

Abstracts can be submitted via the EasyChair submission website.

The deadline for submitting abstracts is 31 December 2023.

Authors will receive a notification of acceptance in February 2024.

Please contact us if you have any questions: hison2024@ds.uzh.ch.