Conference on Rational Approaches in Language Science (RAILS)
13-15 February 2025, Saarbruecken, Germany
We are delighted to announce the upcoming 2nd edition of the conference on „Rational Approaches in Language Science“ (RAILS), which will be organized by the Collaborative Research Center (CRC) 1102 „Information Density and Linguistic Encoding“. The central theme of this conference is (bounded) rational communication, i.e. the idea that language users continuously strive to optimize their means of communication to effectively convey their intended messages. Thus, rational communication has consequences on how recipients encode and remember information, and it also impacts language variation and change.
RAILS will bring together researchers from various fields investigating how information dynamics, rational communication and memory interact with language use, variation, and change. We welcome contributions on (1) how interlocutors process and update information in diverse situational contexts; (2) how language use is adapted to certain contexts and intended referents and (3) how linguistic and conceptual information is stored and maintained in short- and long-term memory. Ultimately, the goal of the conference is to gain deeper insights into the complexities of language use and its dynamic nature in different settings. We invite submissions from researchers across the language sciences – including speech science, theoretical linguistics, empirical linguistics, psycholinguistics and neuroscience, computational linguistics, as well as language development, change and evolution – who apply rational probabilistic explanations to linguistic phenomena, or bring novel experimental findings to bear on such accounts.
Call for Submissions
We accept submissions for posters and/or talks. Talks are slated for 20 minutes plus 10 minutes for questions.
Submission of planned work is invited for poster presentation only. Note that, if accepted, we expect results to be presented at the conference.
Abstracts should be submitted as a single PDF file via https://app.oxfordabstracts.com/stages/43090/submissions/new.
Authors are permitted one full A4 page of text, plus one additional page for figures/tables and references if necessary.
Abstract review is double-blind. Please leave out all identifying information in the abstract or the meta-data.
Abstract text must be in single-spaced 12pt Arial font, with no indents and 1 inch borders on each side (2.54 cm). The title should be in 12pt Arial, bold and centered, in title case.
Page numbers should be omitted. Figure and table captions should be in 10pt Arial font. Table and figure captions should appear below the table or figure.
References must be in 9pt Arial font, in APA7 format.
Deadline for submission is September 30th, 2024 AOE.
De-anonymized abstracts are due in final form on December 2nd, 2024 AOE.
Author names and their affiliations (in parenthesis) should appear in 10 pt Arial font, bold, centered, under the header. The email address of the corresponding author should appear in 10 pt Arial font, centered, in an extra line below the authors. Please allow for one linespace between the email address of the corresponding author and the body of the abstract.
Please click here for a template.
Important dates
Submissions open: 8 July, 2024
Submissions due: 30 September, 2024
Notification of acceptance: 11 November, 2024
Registration period: opening soon!
Final abstract submission: 2 December, 2024
Conference: 13-15 February, 2025
Scientific and financial support for this conference comes from the Collaborative Research Center SFB1102 Information Density and Linguistic Encoding.
