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| Non-official poster / AI-illustration |
On 19 February 2027, the Textes Image Langages (TIL, UR 4182) research laboratory at Université Bourgogne Europe will host the second workshop in its annual series devoted to linguistic and semiotic landscapes. Following the 2026 meeting on Linguistic Landscape and Tourism, the new edition turns to a particularly rich and still underexplored environment: the coast.
Entitled “Linguistic Landscape and the Coast(s): Ecological, Tourism and Professional Dynamics of Coastal Spaces through the Lens of the Semiotics of Space”, the workshop will examine coastal areas not simply as geographical settings, but as socially and symbolically organised places whose uses, identities and professional practices become visible through language.
The coast offers an especially productive field for this kind of research. It is often a multilingual transition zone where national and regional languages, local dialects and professional vocabularies coexist. Fishing, navigation, aquaculture, port activity, salt production, tourism and environmental management all leave their traces in the linguistic landscape through signage, warnings, labels, institutional discourse, commercial texts, place-names and other forms of spatial inscription.
For onomasticians and toponymists, one theme is especially noteworthy: the call explicitly invites research on naming practices and the toponymy of coastal places as markers of social use. Coastal names can reveal how communities classify shorelines, fishing grounds, ports, hazards, tourist zones and culturally significant places, while also showing how environmental and economic change reshapes the way space is named and perceived.
The workshop gives particular attention to three intersecting dimensions:
ecological and environmental issues, including resource management, habitat protection and coastal hazards;
tourism, especially seaside, nautical and heritage tourism;
professional and commercial activity, including fishing, ports, aquaculture and maritime trade.
Possible topics include professional signage in ports and fishing areas, regional and vernacular languages in coastal management, multilingual tourism, coastal toponymy, multimodal communication in fish markets and supply chains, and comparative studies of multilingual coastal regions.
The organisers encourage contributions not only from linguistics, discourse analysis and semiotics, but also from social and cultural geography, ethnography, maritime studies and professional coastal sectors.
Practical information
Date: 19 February 2027
Venue: Maison des Sciences de l’Homme (MSH), Université Bourgogne Europe, Dijon
Languages: English, French, German, Italian and Spanish
Submission deadline: 15 December 2026
Abstract: 300–400 words, with title, 3–5 keywords, relevant bibliography and a short biographical note of up to 100 words
Publication: A peer-reviewed edited volume is planned following the workshop
Submissions and enquiries should be sent to: gibisogni@unisa.it
By bringing together linguistic landscape, semiotics of space, ecolinguistics, professional discourse and toponymy, the Dijon workshop promises to show how the coast is not merely a physical boundary between land and sea, but a densely named, narrated and socially organised space.
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