General description

Visualisations have long been part and parcel of knowledge dissemination practices in the natural sciences, in both scholarly and popular science discourse. However, the humanities – including its linguistic branches – still seem to adhere to a rather language-centric tradition, especially when it comes to developing a theoretical argument. This workshop aims to show that there is ample potential for visualising theoretical positions in linguistics, e.g. by drawing on the inherent visuality of verbal metaphor. Visualisations can also serve to illustrate several steps of a more complex methodology. Both the design process and the finished graphic promise new, unique insights into aspects of linguistic theories and methods. Thus, rather than being decorative embellishments to a text, visualisations can fulfil an epistemic function in processes of knowledge dissemination in linguistics.

This workshop offers an opportunity to explore the potential of visualising linguistic knowledge, both theoretically and practically. We will not only talk about different types of visualisations and their explanatory power; we will also focus on the core elements of infographic design as well as the design approaches with which texts on theory and methods can be ‘translated’ into an infographic form. To this end, we will also draft and discuss several linguistic visualisations together. For those of you without a background in graphic design – don’t worry! You don’t need to be a designer to develop a visual idea and create a convincing graphic – it’s more about experimenting with colour, shape and linguistic concepts 😉

Please register by email to Dr. Pflaeging (jana.pflaeging@plus.ac.at), copy to Cynthia Dermarkar (contact@hpsl.uni-freiburg.de).