Workshop-Ankündigung & Call for Papers: Semantics and Word Formation

Date: 13-Apr-2027 - 15-Apr-2027
Location: Barcelona, Spain
Contact Person: Ivan Lacić
Contact EMail: ivan.lacic@upf.edu
Website: https://www.upf.edu/web/glif/semantics-and-w-f-workshop

Call Deadline: 10-Dec-2026

Description:
In a classic paper on word formation, Hermann Paul (1896: 18) argued that morphology requires an Ergänzung durch die Bedeutungslehre 'supplementation by a theory of semantics'. Nearly 120 years later, Rainer et al. (2014: 33) concluded the introduction to the volume Morphology and Meaning by revisiting Paul's call, noting that although research on meaning in morphology had advanced considerably since 1896, the field still presented ''a rather rugged and sparse research landscape''. Since then, interest in the semantics of word formation has continued to grow (see volumes such as Arndt-Lappe & Plag, 2015; Bauer et al., 2015; Kotowski & Plag, 2023), accompanied by increasing empirical scrutiny. Recent work has addressed a wide range of topics, including the polysemy of derivational processes (Schulte, 2015; Plag et al., 2018; a.o.), semantic differences among rival processes (Rainer et al., 2019; Huyghe et al., 2023; a.o.), form-meaning mismatches (Valera, 2015; Lieber, 2023; a.o.), the semantic transparency of complex words (Schäfer, 2018; Varvara & Huyghe, 2026; a.o.), and the semantic organization (Fradin, 2020; Sanacore et al., 2024; a.o.) and partial predictability (McNally et al., 2024) of derivational paradigms. At the same time, although several existing theoretical frameworks incorporate semantic information into their accounts of word structure – including Distributed Morphology (Harley, 2012), Construction Morphology (Booij, 2010), and Relational Morphology (Jackendoff & Audring, 2020) – their respective treatments of derivational semantics have been subject to criticism (see, e.g., Plag & Kotowski, 2023). Despite this growing body of research, the overall impression is still that of a somewhat fragmented field. Research on semantics and word formation has largely progressed within disciplinary silos, with too little sustained dialogue between researchers mainly concerned with meaning and those mainly concerned with form.

This workshop aims to promote that dialogue by bringing together researchers working from different theoretical, typological, corpus-based, computational, and experimental perspectives. Through intensive discussion of semantic challenges for morphological theory, and challenges of morphology for semantic theory, it seeks to promote critical engagement with a range of theoretical assumptions, methodological choices, and empirical evidence

We welcome submissions addressing (but not limited to) the following topics:

• the nature of morphological meaning 
• (non-)compositionality of word meaning (from semantic transparency to lexicalization)
• many-to-many relationship between word/morpheme form and meaning
• semantic restrictions on morphological patterns
• semantic change in complex words (grammaticalization, pragmaticalization)
• corpus-based and computational approaches to complex word meaning
• acquisition and processing of complex word meaning 

Submission Guidlines:
We invite abstracts for either oral presentations (30 minutes + 10 minutes for questions and discussion) or poster presentations (accompanied by a 2-minute flash talk). Abstracts should not exceed two pages in length (A4 or letter size), using 11-point font and 1-inch/2.5-cm margins. A third page may be used for references, data, and figures. Please indicate your preferred presentation format (oral, poster, or either) when submitting your abstract.

Each presenter may submit a maximum of two abstracts: one as a sole or first author and one as a co-author.

The language of the workshop is English. All abstracts must be submitted in carefully proofread English.

Please submit anonymous abstracts to ivan.lacic@upf.edu by December 10, 2026.

Important Dates:
Deadline for abstract submission: December 10, 2026
Notification of acceptance: January 20, 2027
Workshop dates: April 13–15, 2027

Scientific commitee:

• Elisenda Bernal — U. Pompeu Fabra
• Olivier Bonami – U. Paris Cité
• Rafael Gutiérrez — U. Pompeu Fabra
• Zi Huang — U. Graz
• Richard Huyghe — U. Fribourg
• Andrew Koontz-Garboden — U. Manchester
• Ivan Lacić — U. Pompeu Fabra
• Nathan Malik — U. Pompeu Fabra
• Josefa Martín García — U. Autónoma de Madrid
• Francesca Masini — U. Bologna
• Louise McNally — U. Pompeu Fabra
• Fabio Montermini — U. Toulouse
• Denis Paperno — U. Utrecht
• Franz Rainer — WU Vienna
• Justine Salvadori — U. Pompeu Fabra
• Martin Schäfer — U. Leipzig
• Salvador Valera — U. Granada
• Rossella Varvara — U. Turin