Conferences
CfP 2025
CERLIS2025: Metaphors in Specialized Discourses
in and across cultures
University of Bergamo, 12-14 June 2025
We are pleased to announce a call for abstracts for the CERLIS conference on "Metaphors in Specialized Discourse In and Across Cultures." This interdisciplinary conference aims to explore the intricate and multifaceted roles that metaphors play in specialized forms of discourse, encompassing scientific, technical, medical, legal, business, media, and political communication, across diverse cultural contexts.
As claimed by Semino (2008), metaphors are varied in their textual appearance, versatile in the functions they may perform, and central to many different types of communication, from informal interaction to political speeches. In this regard, Kövecses’ research (2005; 2008) on universality and variation in the use of metaphor has raised the question of whether and to what extent metaphorical thinking can contribute to the understanding of culture and society, and whether cognitive theories can account for both the universality and cultural specificity of metaphorical conceptualisation.
The conference will contribute to these themes by exploring metaphors as devices for understanding specialised fields of knowledge and research from various perspectives. Hence, we particularly welcome proposals focusing on new insights regarding how metaphors in specialized discourse vary across different languages and what these differences reveal about cultural cognition. Furthermore, we aim at understanding how metaphors facilitate complex specialized concepts and drive innovation and how cultural values and norms shape metaphor usage and interpretation in specialized discourse.
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:
Theoretical Approaches to Metaphor in Specialized Discourse
Metaphors in Specialised Communication
Metaphors in knowledge dissemination and popularization
Metaphors in Business, Legal, Medical, and Tourism Discourse(s)
Metaphors in Media and Political Discourse
Cultural and Intercultural Perspectives on Metaphor
Plenary speakers
Zsofia Demien (UCL)
Maria Luque Olalla Colmenero (universidad de Granada)
Zoltán Kövecses (Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest)
Michele Prandi (University of Genua)
Günter Schmale (Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3)
Gerard Steen (Amsterdam University)
Irma Taavistainen (University of Helsinki)
Further information here: CERLIS2025
CERLIS conferences, workshops and seminars
2022
CILC2022 - XII International CORPUS Linguistics Conference - Specialized discourse and translation studies in Corpus Linguistics, Bergamo, Italy, 26-28 May 2022 . See also here
CADAAD2022 - 9th Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis Across Disciplines conference: (Critical) Discourse Analysis and the (new?) normal, Bergamo, 6-8 July, 2022.
See here
2020
11th CERLIS Conference: - CERLIS 2020 (Bergamo, 25-27 June 2020), Translation and Gender in the Profession (4th Valencia-Napoli Colloquium, hosted by CERLIS)
2018
10th CERLIS Conference - CERLIS 2018 (Bergamo, 21-23 June 2018), Scholarly Pathways: Knowledge Transfer and Knowledge Exchange in Academia
2016
9th CERLIS Conference - CERLIS 2016 (Bergamo, 23-25 June 2016), Ways of Seeing, Ways of Being: Representing the Voices of Tourism
2014
8th CERLIS Conference - CERLIS 2014 (Bergamo, 19-21 June 2014), The Language of Medicine
2012
7th CERLIS Conference - CERLIS 2012 (Bergamo, 21-22 June 2012), I Corpora nella Ricerca e nella Didattica dei Linguaggi Specialistici.
2011
6th CERLIS Conference - CERLIS 2011 (Bergamo, 23-25 June 2011), Genre Variation in English Academic Communication.
2010
5th CERLIS Conference - CERLIS 2010 (Bergamo, 22 June 2010), Legal Discourse in Context.
2009
4th CERLIS Conference - CERLIS 2009 (Bergamo, 19-21 June 2009), Researching Language and the Law.
2008
3rd CERLIS Conference - CERLIS 2008 (Bergamo, 19-21 June 2008), Trading Identities.
2001
2nd CERLIS Conference - CERLIS 2001 (Bergamo, 18-20 October 2001), Conflict and Negotiation in the Language of Specialized Texts.
2000
1st CERLIS Conference - CERLIS 2000 (Bergamo, 5-6 May 2000), Modality in Specialized Texts.
Conferences, workshops, seminars hosted by CERLIS
2022
CILC2020 - XII International CORPUS Linguistics Conference - Specialized discourse and translation studies in Corpus Linguistics, Bergamo, Italy, 26-28 May 2022
CADAAD2022 - 9th Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis Across Disciplines conference - (Critical) Discourse Analysis and the (new?) normal, Bergamo, 6-8 July, 2022.
2021
Corpus-assisted discourse studies: perspectives and modes of analysis. Bergamo, Italy, 19 November 2021
ILLA (International Language and Law Association) 2021 The Digitalisation of Legal Discourse: Digital Genres, Media and Analytical Tools, Bergamo, Italy, 16-17 December, 2021
2019
International Conference: MAG 2019 - Metadiscourse in Digital Communication: What has changed? (hosted by CERLIS, Bergamo, 27-29 June 2019)
International Conference: DN23 - Discourse, power and mind: between reason and emotion/Discorso, potere e mente: tra ragione e emozione/Discours, pouvoir et esprit: entre raison et émotions/Discurso, poder y mente: entre la razón y la emoción/Diskurs, Macht und Geist: zwischen Ratio und Emotionen (hosted by CERLIS, Bergamo, 6-8 June 2019)
2015
National Conference: La guida turistica come luogo d’incontro tra lessico e immagini dei Beni Culturali, (Pisa-Florence, 11-12 June 2015)
National Conference: La guida turistica come luogo d’incontro tra lessico e immagini dei Beni Culturali, (Pisa-Florence, 11-12 June 2015)
2014
International Conference: Asian Arbitration Discourse
2013
EuroWiss Conference, Universitare Lehr-Lern-Diskurse komparativ (Bergamo, 27-28 June 2013)
2009
Mehrsprachige Wissenschaftskommunikation Conference (Bergamo, 17-19 September 2009).
2005
International Conference: LSP2005 (Bergamo, 29 August - 2 September 2005), New Trends in Specialized Discourse.