Nicole Gotzner

Picture: Jens Raddatz (University of Osnabrück)

Contact:

Cognitive Science

University of Osnabrück

Wachsbleiche 27, Room 50/103

49090 Osnabrück

Nicole Gotzner

I am a professor for Linguistics in the Cognitive Science Institute at Osnabrück University and a guest professor for political and strategic communication at Alma Mater Europaea/Vienna. My research areas are Semantics, Pragmatics, Sociolinguistics and Psycholinguistics/Neurolinguistics. I lead the SPA Lab, which is partly funded by the DFG Emmy Noether program. Visit my lab's website for more information.

Before coming to Osnabrück University, I was a group leader at the University of Potsdam, I held a replacement professorship at Humboldt University (Berlin) and a postdoc position at ZAS (Berlin), funded by the Priority Program Xprag.de. I was a visiting researcher at Macquarie University (Sydney) and Stanford (Palo Alto). Currently, I am an honorary senior researcher at UCL (London).

I am a co-editor-in-chief of Palgrave Studies in Pragmatics, Language and Cognition, a member of the Editorial Board of Glossa: Psycholinguistics and a co-editor-in-chief of the new Journal of Experimental Pragmatics.

Email address: nicole.gotzner@uni-osnabrueck.de

Please send all administrative requests to by personal assistant Julia Reuter office-spa@uni-osnabrueck.de

5 representative publications

Gotzner, N. (2026). Does it matter what Is said and who said it? The interpretation of Trump’s and Harris’ statements among Republican and Democratic Voters. Open Mind, 10, 415–430. https://doi.org/10.1162/OPMI.a.343

Kobrock, K., Ohmer, X., Bruni, E., & Gotzner, N. (2026). The role of pragmatic mechanisms in referential communication and categorization: An emergent communication model. PLOS Computational Biology, 22(5), e1014326. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1014326

Gotzner, N. & Scontras, G. (2026). Speakers use indirect language to pursue their own goals while managing their social relationships. Open Mind, 10, 1470–1481. https://doi.org/10.1162/OPMI.a.388

Gotzner, N. & Romoli, J. (2022). Meaning and alternatives. Annual Review of Linguistics, 8, 213-234. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-linguistics-031220-012013

Gotzner, N. & Mazzarella, D. (2021). Face management and negative strengthening: The role of power relations, social distance and gender. Frontiers in Psychology: Experimental Approaches to Pragmatics. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.602977

News

The Journal of Experimental Pragmatics has launched with UCL Press after 3 years of preparation! Ira Noveck, Richard Breheny and I are the co-editors in chief.