CiLD 2026

Construal in Language and Discourse

The conference will be available for both online and in-person participation.

 

21-23 September 2026
University of Łódź, Poland

(CiLD 2026)” has been granted the patronage of the Polish Cognitive Linguistics Association (PTJK)
Polskie Towarzystwo Językoznawstwa Kognitywnego (PTJK)

The conference Construal in Language and Discourse invites contributions that examine construal as a central concept for understanding meaning construction across language, different forms of discourse, cognition, narrative, and multimodal communication.

In Cognitive Linguistics, construal refers to how speakers and writers conceptualise experience by selecting, structuring, profiling, foregrounding, backgrounding, and simulating aspects of a scene. This conference adopts and extends this view, proposing construal as a general cognitive operation of conceptualisation, applicable across linguistic levels, discourse structures, narrative forms, interactional settings, and communicative modalities.

The conference adopts a flexible view of the relationship between construal and linguistic expression/coding. Construal refers broadly to how events, participants, relations, inferences, evaluations, and temporal structures are conceptualised, framed, and made salient, while verbal and non-verbal resources—lexical, grammatical, prosodic, gestural, visual, and multimodal—are among the means through which such construals are communicated and negotiated in discourse.

Within Cognitive Linguistics, construal encompasses grammatical and lexical choices, constructional meaning, domain activation and knowledge structures, conceptualisation and simulation semantics, representational format, figure–ground organisation, metaphorical and metonymic processes, salience and prominence building, and narrative construal across extended discourse. Cognitive Linguistics is explicitly understood as extending beyond the sentence, encompassing discourse, genre, and narrative organisation.

From a discourse-pragmatic and narrative perspective, construal concerns how stories are built, maintained, contested, and reinterpreted in interaction. Topics include participant roles, directness vs indirectness, stance-taking, involvement vs. autonomy, framing and reframing, activation of metamessage and its strategic use, acceptance and rejection of frames, argumentation, strategic ambiguity, and narrative sequencing and evaluation. These issues are especially salient in institutional, forensic, and literary contexts, where competing construals of events, characters, intentions, and moral evaluations are at stake.

The conference explicitly welcomes contributions on forensic linguistics, where narrative construal is central to witness testimonies, police interviews, courtroom discourse, and legal storytelling, as well as work on literary discourse, where construal shapes and is shaped by point of view, temporal structure, characterisation, and reader interpretation.

In addition, the conference invites work on gesture and multimodal communication, where narrative meaning is constructed across embodied, visual, and audiovisual modalities, and contributions at the interface with Cognitive Psychology, including memory, attention, consciousness, cognitive control, reasoning, and mental simulation.

By bringing together cognitive, narrative, interactional, pragmatic, forensic, literary, and multimodal approaches, the conference aims to establish construal as a unifying concept for understanding meaning in language and discourse.

CiLD 2026 Organizing Committee

Department of Linguistics and Communication, University of Łódź

Janusz Badio (Conference organiser, Chair of CiLD-2026) email: cild@uni.lodz.pl

Kamila Ciepiela (Deputy chair, CiLD Chair), 

Marek Molenda (Conference Secretary and IT)

Anna Pietruszewska (Conference Secretary): cild@uni.lodz.pl

Jakub Żak (IT Engineer)

 

We invite proposals for papers on: (the list is not meant to be exhaustive)

Cognitive Linguistics
Grammatical construal
Lexical construal 
Domain activation and knowledge structures
Conceptualisation and simulation semantics
Figure–ground organisation
Perspective, profiling, and scope
Metaphorical and metonymic construal
Salience and prominence building

Discourse, Pragmatics & Narrative
Participant roles and stance
Involvement vs. autonomy construal
Framing, reframing, and frame negotiation
Acceptance and rejection of frames
Indirectness
Interpersonal communication
Metamessages and implicit meaning
Strategic ambiguity and indirectness
Dynamic structure building in discourse
Narrative sequencing and coherence
Storytelling as interactional practice
Narrative evaluation 

Sociology & Social Interaction

Construal of social roles 
Power, authority
Moral and normative construal
Ideological framing and social meaning
Construal in public, political, and media discourse

Narrative, Storytelling & Literature

Storytelling as discourse practice
Narrative sequencing and coherence
Temporal construal and causality
Perspective, focalisation, and point of view
Character construal and evaluation
Narrative framing in legal, institutional, and everyday discourse
Literary narrative and reader construal
Genre-specific narrative construal

Papers do not need to be limited to Cognitive Grammar; we also welcome discourse-analytic, pragmatic, corpus-based, multimodal, and interactional approaches, provided they address meaning construction, perspective, framing, or conceptualisation.

Publication
Selected papers from the conference may be invited for submission to a peer-reviewed special issue of Research in Language, subject to the journal’s standard review procedures.

The organising committee is also exploring additional publication possibilities, including edited volumes and thematic issues in international journals and publication series, such as Beyond Philology, Forum Akademickie Ateneum, Cogent Arts & Humanities (Taylor & Francis), as well as selected international book series published by Brill and Harrassowitz.

Abstract submission guidelines

We invite proposals for individual papers (20-minute presentation + 10-minute discussion)

Abstracts should be: 

• No more than 300-500 words

• Submitted in English

• Accompanied by a short biographical note (max. 100 words) and 3–5 keywords

Abstracts should clearly outline:

• the research aim or question,
• the theoretical or analytical perspective,
• the methodology or approach,
• and, where relevant, the data or material analysed.

We particularly welcome empirically grounded contributions, though theoretically oriented papers are also invited where they offer a clear conceptual or methodological contribution and relate to the conference theme.

Please submit your Abstract through the following LINK TO SEND ABSTRACT
Deadline for abstract submission: [31 May 2026]
Notification of acceptance: [14 June 2026]

Extended deadline for abstract submission: 20 June 2026

The conference format has been changed to hybrid

 

Registration and fee payment deadline: [19 July 2026]: LINK

Anna Bączkowska, University of Gdańsk, Poland

Alan Cienki, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Henryk Kardela, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, Poland 

Krzysztof Kredens, Aston University, Birmingham, United Kingdom

Iwona Witczak-Plisiecka, University of Łódź, Poland


 

REGISTRATION FORM [deadline 19 July 2026]  - Link to register
PAYMENTS:

Conference fee
The fee covers organisation costs, conference materials, lunches, and refreshments.

On-site participation

• Participants from Polish institutions: 900 PLN
• Students from Polish institutions: 750 PLN
• Participants from other countries: 250 EUR
• Students from other countries: 200 EUR

Online participation

• Participants from Poland: 500 PLN
• Students from Polish institutions: 400 PLN
• Participants from other countries: 150 EUR
• Students from other countries: 100 EUR

Payment

• Registration and bank payment deadline: 19th July, 2026
• Bank transfer charges are the responsibility of the payer.

 

Please make payments to the university bank account: (NOTE: please remember to specify your name and the name of the conference – CILD 2026.

Account holder:
Uniwersytet Łódzki / University of Łódź
KF26 (CiLD) Construal in Language and Discourse
IBAN: PL 11 1240 3028 1111 0011 6305 7199
BIC/SWIFT: PKOPPLPW
Bank: Bank Polska Kasa Opieki S.A., II Oddział w Łodzi
ul. Piotrkowska 270, 90-361 Łódź 

For participants from Poland – additional financial information
Osoby, które będą potrzebowały faktury, prosimy o dokonanie płatności przelewem do 19.07.2026 i wpisanie danych do faktury w formularzu zgłoszeniowym.
Dane do faktury dla uczestnika konferencji ‘CiLD 2026’:
Imię i nazwisko:
Nazwa i adres instytucji:
NIP Instytucji:
Upoważniam Uniwersytet Łódzki w Łodzi do wystawienia faktury VAT bez mojego podpisu:
Data i czytelny podpis
 

CONFERENCE VENUE
The conference is planned for three full days, 21-23 September 2026. The conference will be held at the 

Faculty of Philology, University of Lodz (Pomorska 171/173) (Conference address) LINK TO THE PHILOLOGY FACULTY 

ACCOMMODATION
We recommend the University of Lodz Conference Centre (Street) Rogowska 25, Rogowska 35, Łódź. It is not withing a walking distance (6km by car), but has rooms that are reasonably priced, it is also safe and comfortable, refurbished and new.
A standard Uber or Bolt ride from Rogowska 25 to Pomorska 171 in Łódź typically costs between 15 PLN and 25 PLN ( (approx. 4-7 Euros) during low-demand hours.
Link to Rogowska HERE 
Link to Rogowska on MAP
Individual reservations: tel. +48 42 659 82 11 or email rogowska@uni.lodz.pl (CiLD Conference 21-23.09)

Close to the venue (walking distance) are:

1. Arche Residence, Łódź www.archeresidencelodz.pl
2. A budget option is BB Consul

A little further away is Villa Masoneria (rezerwacja.villamasoneria@gmail.com)

There are also many options that can be found on Booking.com around the conference venue at Pomorska 171-173, Łódź, Wydział Filologiczny UŁ

Lodz airport

(LCJ) currently has regular connections to London (STN), Nottingham, Birmingham, Dublin, Alicante, Malaga, Brussels, and Milan.
Lodz is also easily accessible by train from

Warsaw airport

(WAW), which has a wide range of international flights.
The faculty building is situated between the intercity hubs Lodz Widzew and Lodz Fabryczna, and is within walking distance from the local stations Lodz Niciarniana and Lodz Stoki. The intercity train timetable is

here

.

You can also view the programme in PDF
The programme is subject to change. Session chairs and confirmed plenary titles will be added later.

Monday, 21 September 2026

Two plenaries · 16 regular-paper slots

Time	Room 2.20	Room 2.21
09:00–10:00	Plenary lecture: Anna Bączkowska Lecture Hall A5 · Title TBA
10:00–10:10	Transition to parallel sessions
Session theme	Space, perception and embodied construal	Cross-linguistic and bilingual construal
10:10–10:40	The underwater conceptualiser: Multimodal construal in scuba diving Rafał Augustyn Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, Poland In person	From concepts to narratives: Comparative construals of Hungarian hazugság and Indonesian bohong Ahmad Adha University of Szeged, Hungary Online
10:45–11:15	Construal of Visual Meaning: Signers and Speakers in the Interpretation of Figurative and Abstract Images Agnieszka Dłużniewska Maria Grzegorzewska University, Poland In person	Mono- vs. bilingualism modulates path motion event construal in L1 German Anna Shadrova and Gajaneh Hartz Leipzig University, Germany In person
11:15–11:45	Coffee break
11:45–12:15	From Acoustic Prominence to Construal: Rethinking Qalqalah in Qur'anic Recitation Mashael Assaadi Taibah University, Saudi Arabia In person	Models of linguistic communication in Polish-Chinese families. Polish-Chinese bilingualism Michalina Koniuk Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland Online
12:20–12:50	Construing Space: Evidence from Preposition Use in Two Languages Nihal Bouabida and Michele I. Feist Moulay Ismail University, Morocco; University of Louisiana at Lafayette, USA Online	Language-Specific Construals of WOMAN in Hungarian–English Late Bilinguals Veronika Schrenk University of Pannonia, Hungary Online
12:50–13:50	Lunch break
13:50–14:50	Plenary lecture: Alan Cienki Lecture Hall A5 · Title TBA
14:50–15:00	Transition to parallel sessions
Session theme	Grammar, constructions and framing	Meaning, discourse and interaction
15:00–15:30	Result-Oriented and Process-Oriented Construals: A Cognitive Grammar Approach to Japanese and English Akira Machida Nihon University, Japan In person	The analysis of selected discourse connectives in their procedural function Blanka Bobrowska Academy of Applied Sciences in Wałbrzych, Poland Online
15:35–16:05	Objectivizing and subjectivizing lexical encapsulation as construals: A cross-linguistic approach Josep E. Ribera Universitat de València, Spain In person	Tracing Passivisability: Conceptual Foundations of the German werden-Passive Rebecca Karrer University of Graz, Austria Online
16:05–16:35	Coffee break
16:35–17:05	Rethinking Frame Evocation: Construal, Misunderstanding, and Frame Selection in Discourse Kei Sakaguchi Kyushu Institute of Technology, Japan In person	Creativity in Interaction: A Typology of Meaning Construction in Non-Conventional Expressions Anna Kutscher and Patricia Linnemann Bielefeld University, Germany In person
17:10–17:40	Allostructions reconsidered through construal: Limits of generalizing over Russian passive-related constructions Junya Taniura Kyoto University, Japan In person	Title TBA Monika Tosik University of Łódź, Poland In person

Tuesday, 22 September 2026

Two plenaries · 16 regular-paper slots

Time	Room 2.20	Room 2.21
09:00–10:00	Plenary lecture: Henryk Kardela Lecture Hall A5 · Title TBA
10:00–10:10	Transition to parallel sessions
Session theme	Public discourse, media and evaluation	Culture, narrative and moral construal
10:10–10:40	Countering the Climate Threats: Counter-Proximisation and the Legitimation of EU Environmental Policy Discourse Ali Basarati and Melike Alsac VIZJA University; University of Warsaw, Poland In person	Construal of Cultural Space: Toponyms of the Górale–Lachy Borderland in Narrative Discourse Joanna Adamczyk Jagiellonian University, Poland In person
10:45–11:15	Multimodal Polarization at the EU–Belarus Border: Competing Crisis Frames in Polish Media Marcin Kosman VIZJA University, Poland In person	Foregrounding and Backgrounding in Qurʾānic Narratives: Linguistic Characteristics and their Functions Yehudit Dror University of Haifa, Israel Mode TBA
11:15–11:45	Coffee break
11:45–12:15	Construing Newsworthiness: News Values Beyond Journalistic Mediation Kayla Heglas University of Birmingham, United Kingdom In person	Hiding in Plain Sight: Reference Point Construction in English Translations of Dōgen's “Raihai” and Alan Spence's “After Dōgen” Monika Kocot University of Łódź, Poland In person
12:20–12:50	Words of the Year as Cultural Construal: Conceptual Metaphor and Evaluative Framing in Polish and English Public Discourse Agnieszka Poznańska University of Wrocław, Poland In person	Quoting Wisdom: Authority and Moral Construal in Mongolian Surgaal Texts Krisztina Szótér Jilin International Studies University; Eötvös Loránd University In person
12:50–13:50	Lunch break
13:50–14:50	Plenary lecture: Krzysztof Kredens Lecture Hall A5 · Title TBA
14:50–15:00	Transition to parallel sessions
Session theme	Framing, polarization and ideology	Gender, identity and representation
15:00–15:30	Framing the enemy in the Polish communist cartoons. A social semiotic multimodal analysis Anna Łazuka-Banach University of Szczecin, Poland Online	Male Names for Trans Women: Metonymic Construal and Identity Construction in Peruvian Social Media Discourse Frank Domínguez Chenguayen, Jeancarlo García and Ian Paul Brossard Universidad Tecnológica del Perú; Universidad Nacional Enrique Guzmán y Valle; Universidad de Ingeniería y Tecnología Online
15:35–16:05	Ideologised Media Relations and The Practice of Framing Slurs. A Pragmatic Perspective Franciszek Maksymilian Świergiel University of Szczecin, Poland In person	Framing the self by framing the other: A discourse analysis of how masculinity is construed in online spaces and the process of construction as ideological Olga O'Toole Jagiellonian University, Poland Online
16:05–16:35	Coffee break
16:35–17:05	Beauty, biology and the market: anti-feminist discourse in the TikTok videos of French manosphere female influencer Thais d’Escufon Mehdi Galiere University of Szeged, Hungary In person	(Im)politeness as a narrative strategy in Barbie (2023) Jana Pelclová Masaryk University, Czech Republic In person
17:10–17:40	Constructing Queer Identity Through Language: A Discourse-Pragmatic Study of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert Iga Załuska University of Łódź, Poland In person	Julian of Norwich’s use of GOD AS MOTHER metaphor: From idiosyncratic experience to the metaphorical construal of the divine Katarzyna Stadnik Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, Poland Online

Wednesday, 23 September 2026

One plenary · 18 regular-paper slots · Closing session

Time	Room 2.20	Room 2.21
Session theme	Interaction, communication and lived experience	Academic, legal and specialised discourse
09:00–09:30	The Functions and Contexts of Discourse Markers yaʕni (That means/I mean), Wallah (By God), and affirmative particle naʕam (Yes) in Kuwaiti Arabic: A Longitudinal Corpus-Linguistic Study Nushour Alduaij and Eiman Alsharhan Kuwait University, Kuwait In person	Additional presentation — TBA Reserve programme slot TBA
09:35–10:05	Frame (Re)negotiation and Patient Autonomy in Monolingual and Multilingual Obstetric Consultations Sofía Antequera Manzano University of Alcalá, Spain Online	Construal in Legal Discourse: Symbolic and Subsymbolic Processing in the Interpretation of Legal Meaning Piotr Milwicz-Cichocki University of Warsaw, Poland Online
10:10–10:40	Who is Listening? Audience Design, Shared Cultural Knowledge, and Olfactory Construal in Saudi Arabic–English Bilinguals Ghadeer Damfo Taibah University, Saudi Arabia In person	Construally organizing the abstract: Attentional framing and Gestalt structure in visually enclosed law and linguistics abstracts Ariadna Strugielska Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland In person
10:40–11:10	Coffee break
11:10–11:40	The dynamic interaction of metaphor and agency in accounts of perinatal loss Eline Put Université de Lille, UMR STL, France In person	From Borrowing to Belonging: Motivations for the Use of Anglicisms among Polish Youth Marcelina Masłowska University of Bielsko-Biała, Poland Online
11:45–12:15	Double Empathy and Construal Misalignment: Toward a Construal-Level Model of Autistic–Neurotypical Communication Joanna Mazur-Okalowe University of Rzeszów, Poland In person	Title TBA Janusz Badio University of Łódź, Poland In person
12:15–13:15	Lunch break
13:15–14:15	Plenary lecture: Iwona Witczak-Plisiecka Lecture Hall A5 · Title TBA
14:15–14:25	Transition to parallel sessions
Session theme	Language learning, multilingualism and stance	New and emerging work
14:25–14:55	Definiteness and the construal of abstract domains in C2 English writing by L1 Polish learners Anna Pietruszewska University of Łódź, Poland In person	Title TBA Kamila Ciepiela University of Łódź, Poland TBA
15:00–15:30	Construal and Emotional Labor in Second Language Teaching: Critical Discourse Analysis of a Novice Teacher’s Narrative from the Socio-Cognitive Perspective Szymon Wyrwiński University of Wrocław, Poland In person	Additional presentation — TBA Reserve programme slot TBA
15:30–16:00	Coffee break
16:00–16:30	Gauging the meaning construction of video game users across languages and cultures Karolina Sawa University of Łódź, Poland In person	Additional presentation — TBA Reserve programme slot TBA
16:35–17:05	Epistemic stance in spoken L2 English: variation across L1 backgrounds and task types Linsey C. Yang, Jet Hoek, Wilbert Spooren and Nathan Vandeweerd Radboud University, Netherlands Online	Additional presentation — TBA Reserve programme slot TBA
17:10–17:40	Closing session   Lecture Hall A5

The programme is subject to change. Session chairs and confirmed plenary titles will be added later.

E-mail: cild@uni.lodz.pl

PDF