PLIN Day 2020: Linguistics applied to Business Language in a multilingual and multicultural world

Friday May 15^th, Université catholique de Louvain (Belgium)

The PLIN Day is an annual one-day thematic conference hosted by the Linguistics Research Unit of the Université catholique de Louvain (Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium). The conference has established itself over the years as an international forum for the exchange of ideas among scholars and has brought together researchers from all over the world.

The 2020 PLIN Day will take place on Friday, May 15th and is devoted to “Linguistics applied to Business Language in a multilingual and multicultural world”. It offers academics, professionals, undergraduate and postgraduate students an excellent opportunity to access, share and discuss cutting-edge research in the field. The following (non-exhaustive) list of themes will be covered this year:

The use of (corpus) linguistic methods in the study of organizational communication and/or the characteristics of business language
Research on techniques and practices for clear and simple communication within organizations. This includes techniques for simplifying documents issued by organizations in order to enhance accessibility.
The challenges of the use of “English as a lingua franca” in organizational communication and, more generally, of communication in English between native and non-native speakers within organizations.
Intercultural communication in multilingual business communication

The core of the conference will consist in keynote sessions but participants will also have the opportunity to present their most recent research and/or work in progress during an interactive poster session.

Keynote speakers

Isabelle Clerc, Université de Laval

Thierry Fontenelle, European Investment Bank

Michael Handford, Cardiff University

Geert Jacobs, Universiteit Gent

CALL for posters

In addition to the keynote sessions, an interactive poster session will be organized to enable participants to present their most recent research and/or work in progress. We invite abstracts (between 300 and 500 words) addressing topics such as:

(Corpus) linguistic methods applied to the study of organizational communication
Analyses of functional and formal characteristics of business language
- Clear and simple (written or oral) communication within organizations
- “English as a lingua franca” in organizational communication
- Communication in English between native and non-native speakers within organizations
- Intercultural communication in multilingual business communication

We welcome contributions about languages other than Dutch, English, French, German and Spanish.

The posters (poster size: 900 x 1200 mm) will be presented in English (poster size: 900 x 1200 mm). Further information on the posters will be provided in due course. The presence of the author (or at least one of the authors) is required as short oral presentations of the posters will also be organized in a poster boost session.

Abstract submissions should be sent by 5 March 2020 to the following address: plindayucl@uclouvain.be.

Acceptance for posters will be notified by 27 March 2020.

For more information: https://uclouvain.be/fr/instituts-recherche/ilc/plin/plinday2020.html

Important dates

1 March, 2020: Registration opens

5 March 2020: Deadline for abstract submissions
27 March 2020: Notification of acceptance for a poster presentation
7 May, 2020: Registration closes

Organizing committee

Sylvie De Cock, Université catholique de Louvain

Thomas François, Université catholique de Louvain

Philippe Hiligsmann, Université catholique de Louvain

Adeline Müller, Université catholique de Louvain

Laura Penha-Marion, Université catholique de Louvain

Scientific committee

Andrea Catellani, Université catholique de Louvain