Sociolinguistics and AI

Date: 19.08.2026 - 21.08.2026
Conference / symposium
Keywords: sociolinguistics, generative AI
Format: onsite
Language(s): English
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Event Fee: Fee

Organizer(s):
Janus Mortensen , The AI-UNI research group at the University of Copenhagen

As we write this, in November 2025, three years after ChatGPT was made available to the general public, ‘AI’ seems to be every­where. Strong in connotation, weak in deno­tation, and deeply entangled in contradictory dis­courses of desire and anxiety, profit and preju­dice, power and injustice, capitalism and en­vironmentalism, ‘AI’ has – for better and for worse – become a keyword of our times. A range of different technologies branded in­dis­criminately as ‘AI’ have ac­quired a discur­sive and material presence in the social world, affecting the lives of millions of people around the globe, in different ways and with different consequences. Though not the only form of ‘AI’ around, large language models and their deployment as part of text-generative tools have come to be seen as prototypical exemplars of ‘AI’. Lan­guage plays a central role in ‘AI’ – not only as part of the discourses surrounding the tech­nology, but also as part of the technology it­self. It is therefore not surprising that socio­linguists have been keen to explore ‘AI’ from a range of different perspectives. Many im­portant in­sights have started to emerge, but a seemingly endless list of questions con­cerning the inter­face between socio­linguistics and ‘AI’ never­theless remains to be explored: If ‘AI’ is indeed a keyword of our times, then what does sociolinguistics have to say about it? How can sociolinguistics as a discipline help us understand the ‘new’ technologies that are being introduced at breakneck speed? And what about the implications of the tech­nologies for fundamental human concerns such as identity, social relations and, indeed, humanity? Is ‘AI’ changing the way we use lan­guage, think about language or think about hu­mans as a languaging spe­cies? Is it changing language itself? Do we need new ways of con­ceptualizing the rela­tionship between lan­guage, technology and the environment? Do we need new methods and theories to bring sociolinguistics into the era of ‘AI’ – or will estab­lished approaches suffice? Against this background, we are pleased to in­vite submissions for the conference Socio­lin­guistics and AI, hosted by the AI-UNI group at the University of Copenhagen, 19–21 August 2026. The conference is an in-person event. We welcome contributions from all research traditions associated with the field of socio­linguistics, including but not limited to (and in no particular order): sociocultural linguistics, interactional socio­lin­guistics, ethnometh­od­ology and conversa­tion analysis, linguistic ethnography, linguis­tic anthropology, (critical) discourse studies, language policy and plan­ning, social semi­otics, variationist socio­linguistics, educa­tional linguistics, and eco­linguistics. Contributions should address ‘AI’ in some re­spect while clearly relating it to themes and issues commonly addressed within socio­linguistics, including but not limited to: multi­lingualism, social interaction, language and power, agency, identity, language and edu­ca­tion, (language) ideologies, minoritised lan­guages, heritage languages, linguistic di­ver­sity, language policy and planning, lan­guage variation and change, (de)standardi­sation, (de)co­loniality, language policy and plan­ning, the An­thropocene, mediatisation and socio­linguistic change. We particularly encourage submissions that report on empirical work, but we also wel­come papers that are methodological or theo­retical in nature.

http://www.ai-uni.dk

Post created by: Janus Mortensen