18Jun
Katharina Haude & Eva Scheel-Huber (CNRS–SEDYL & Universität zu Köln)
The distribution of “verbal DPs” in two languages with syntactic uniformity (Tagalog and Movima)
Welcome to Discourse Studies!
At the Discourse and Multimodality Lab, we examine how different modalities interact in language production processes at the intersection of the semantic, pragmatic, cognitive levels. Learn more.
EU-funded project on conversational storytelling
Starting on November 1, 2025, Anna Bonifazi (IfL, Diiskurslinguistik) will be the general coordinator of STORYTEL, a three-year Erasmus+ project coordinated by the University of Cologne, and involving the University of Bologna, the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, and the University of Murcia. The full title of the project is: "At the roots of multimodality: Learning from smartphone-based audiovisual recordings of conversational storytelling". STORYTEL focuses on spontaneous storytelling embedded in conversations, a still underestimated and yet primordial form of communication - the origin of all contemporary digital and telecinematic forms of storytelling. The project will reinforce the EU leadership in the study of large AI language models by unlocking the multimodal complexity of telling stories in human face-to-face communication. At the moment, the Cologne scientific and administrative team includes Sonja Gipper (IfL ASW), Martine Grice (IfL Phonetics), Sandra Debreslioska (IfL DL), Juman Al-qaoud (IfL DL), Madeleine Frings (IfL DL), Felix Rau (DCH), Øyvind Eide (IHD), Lüder Schmidt (FG1), and Nina Kind (D7). Most of all, STORYTEL foresees the active participation of students all the way through! More soon - an ad hoc website will be available shortly.
- New publication: Al-Qaoud, J. (2026). Towards a Multimodal Account of Post-Positioned Question Tags in Jordanian Arabic Conversation. Social Interaction: Video-Based Studies of Human Sociality, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.7146/si.v9i1.147094
- New publication: Debreslioska, Sandra, Anna Kuder & Pamela Perniss. 2025. The palm-up open hand gesture across language modalities: A comparison of German and DGS (German Sign Language), Journal of Pragmatics 249: 99-119. DOI: doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2025.08.008.
- New publication: Bonifazi, Anna. Forthcoming. The Special Grammar of Multimodal Macro-Segments in Oral Epic Storytelling. In The Special Grammar of Traditional Literature: Studies Building upon Albert Lord's "Special Grammar”, R. Person (ed.). Boston and Leiden: Brill.
- New publication: Bonifazi, Anna & David F. Elmer. 2016 (online). Visuality in Bosniac and Homeric Epic. Classics@14. Washington, DC: Center for Hellenic Studies. 2024 (print). In Singers and Tales in the Twenty-First Century, D. F. Elemer and P. McMurray (eds.), 123-154. The Milman Parry Collection of Oral Literature. Distributed by Harvard University Press: Cambridge, MA.
- Are you interested in the transcription of conversations? Here we have a brief tutorial by a PhD student of our Department of Linguistics about the 2022-launched software DOTE!
Job Vacancy: Student Assistant
The Institute of Linguistics, Departments of General and Historical-Comparative Linguistics, has a vacancy for a student assistant in the library (9–19 hours per week), starting in October. Interested candidates should send their application (cover letter and CV, plus any additional documents) in digital form to Dr Claudia Wegener (claudia.wegener@uni-koeln.de) by 14 June.
Konzept bietet Rahmen für multimodale Datenerhebung in den Sprachwissenschaften
In einem interdisziplinärem Forschungsteam hat Dr. Anastasia Bauer mitgewirkt einen Workflow zu entwickeln, der durch die Integration nicht-sprachlicher Informationen die Erforschung von Sprache und Kommunikation verbessern soll.
CCLS Lecture Series
On 04.05. the CCLS Lecture Series starts with exciting presentations from various linguistic disciplines.
ZEIT Article: “Verstummt und vergessen”
Article about endangered languages and interview with Birgit Hellwig in ZEIT Nr. 08/2026.
Kushan script featured in Terra X
A media tip for anyone following the discoveries surrounding the Kushan script: in this episode of Terra X on ZDF, Svenja Bonmann and her colleagues report on their deciphering of this script (from approx. minute 17:19). They then head to a mountain range in Tajikistan to recover and evaluate further characters carved into rocks. They are accompanied by a Tajik archaeologist and local civil protection authorities. Watch it on 1 March at 7:30 p.m. on ZDF and now in the media library (in German).
Presentation: Vereinbarkeit von generativer KI und Lehre
Elen Le Foll and Eva Scheel-Huber gave a presentation on the compatibility of generative AI and teaching on February 4, 2026, as part of the UzK Competence Days “KI in der Hochschulbildung.”
EU-financed project on „Conversational Storytelling“
On November 1st 2025, “STORYTEL - At the roots of multimodality: Learning from smartphone-based audiovisual recordings of conversational storytelling”, will launch. This three year Erasmus+ project is coordinated by the University of Cologne and involves the University of Bologna, the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, and the University of Murcia. The scientific and administrative team in Cologne includes: Anna Bonifazi (project manager, IfL DL), Sonja Gipper (IfL ASW), Martine Grice (IfL Phonetik), Sandra Debreslioska (IfL DL), Juman Al-qaoud (IfL DL), Madeleine Frings (IfL DL), Felix Rau (DCH), Øyvind Eide (IHD), Lüder Schmidt (FG1) and Nina Kind (D7).
Millions in funding for research into indigenous languagest
The Volkswagen Foundation is funding a project by Dr. Svenja Bonmann to analyse an unknown Central American writing system and attempt to assign it to a language / Approximately one million euros in funding over three years.
Kleine Fächer im Portrait: Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft
Sonja Gipper and Birgit Hellwig introduce the subject of "General Linguistics" in a new blog post from kleinefaecher.de.
