VocUM 2025: Play on Words, Words on Play

It is with great pleasure that we invite students to submit proposals for the 12^th edition of the VocUM conference, to be held on site on November 13 and 14, 2025.

What is [Voc]UM?

VocUM is an international conference organized annually by students of Université de Montréal from different fields of study relating to language. It is the only multidisciplinary conference in Montreal dedicated to language. Its mission is to provide a platform for young researchers to display their findings and foster meaningful discussions across diverse disciplines. By engaging in the annual student conference, participants have the opportunity not only to refine their oral communication skills, but also to contribute to scholarly discourse by publishing articles in the journal ScriptUM. Thus, language has been targeted as a focal point to facilitate dialogue between otherwise isolated disciplines.

The conference, which was founded in 2014, is now marking its 12^th edition. In addition to presentations by young researchers and two keynote lectures, there will be a poster session.

WHO IS ELIGIBLE?

The student conference VocUM 2025: Play on Words, Words on Play may feature the following disciplines, among others:

Language Acquisition	Literature
Discourse Analysis	Ludology
Andragogy	Music and Musicology
Comparative Literature	Neuro/Psycholinguistique
Communication	Speech Therapy
Didactics of Languages	Pedagogy
Ethnology	Philosophy
Classical Studies	Psychology
Ethnolinguistics	Political Science
History	Sociolinguistics
Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence	Sociology
Journalism	Translation and Translation Studies
Linguistics	Natural Language Processing

To accommodate a diverse range of participants, the VocUM 2024 conference will feature 15 to 20-minutepaper presentations followed by a question period, as well as a dedicated time slot for poster presentations. Students of all academic levels and young researchers are invited to submit their projects, indicating whether their submission should be considered for a paper presentation or a poster (at the discretion of the evaluation committee), or a poster presentation only.

Please submit your proposals by Tuesday May 20, 2025. Proposals should not exceed 300 words (not counting references) and must be submitted using the following electronic form. The scientific committee accepts proposals in French and English. However, the dissemination of knowledge in French is strongly encouraged.

THEME

« Der Ursprung und die primitive Form des Sprachspiels ist eine Reaktion;
erst auf dieser können die komplizierteren Formen wachsen. Die Sprache –
will ich sagen – ist eine Verfeinerung, “im Anfang war die Tat”. »
(Wittgenstein, L. (1984), « Vermischte Bemerkungen », in Werkausgabe
in 8 Bänden, vol. 8, p. 493)

[“The origin and the primitive form of the language game is a reaction; only
from this can more complicated forms develop.
Language—I want to say— is a refinement, ‘in the beginning was
the deed’” {Wittgenstein, L. (1980), Culture and Value (translated by
G. H. von Wright), University of Chicago Press, p. 31e}]

The term jeu in French has a rich polysemy, covering various areas. It can refer to a recreational activity with rules, an artistic performance (acting), a space of freedom between elements (mechanical play), or even a relational and strategic dynamic (political play). However, its specific link with language is the theme of this conference, more so iocus (speech play) than ludus (play in action). Not only is language the ground for play—through wordplay, semantic ambiguities, and rhetorical strategies—but it’s also the foundation of many games, whether they be literary or theatrical. From riddles to enigmas, to role plays and board games based on communication, language shapes and enhances the ludic experience. This conference explores how play and language interact, shape each other and contribute to creativity and innovation in different cultural and social fields.

In English, the verb to play and the term game both have different meanings, distinct from the French equivalent. Game primarily refers to a playful activity structured by rules, whether it be board games, videogames or sports. According to Roger Caillois, a game is a “free”, “separate”, “uncertain”, “regulated”, “fictive” and “unproductive” activity (1967 [1958], 42–43), meaning it is consequence free and does not enter the product-oriented regime. In this regard, its usage goes well beyond the field of entertainment and can also reference a strategy or competition (political game), hunting (game animals, in the sense of animals that are hunted) or even a state of mind (to be game for something, meaning to be up for a challenge). On the other hand, the verb to play covers a larger semantic field closer to the French verb jouer. It means to play in a ludic sense (to play a game) but also to interpret a role (to play a character), to perform a piece of music (to play the piano), or strategically manipulate a situation (to play along). It can also express a more abstract interaction like in to play with words, referring to a form of linguistic creativity or to play a part, which highlights getting involved in a process or a social context.

Beyond its polysemy, play is an ancient activity, preceding language both chronologically and cognitively. Despite this, the relationship between play and language is clear from the very beginning of human development. More than a simple recreational activity, play has a fundamental role in language acquisition, while also modelling the cognitive and social skills essential for mastering it. From the very first interactions, playing means creating a special framework for linguistic exploration. Through symbolic play, kids internalize language structures by pretending to interact socially and handling abstract

representations, making language learning easier (Vygotsky, 1978). The interactive settings found in play are essential, since these ludic exchanges between children and adults allow for a gradual development of syntactic and pragmatic competences (Bruner, 1983), while also strengthening interpersonal relationships. Imitation games and interactions in a playful context have also been identified as key factors in the development of communicative abilities, including collaborative learning and joint attention (Tomasello, 2003).

As the child grows, playing becomes an increasingly sophisticated tool for language and cognitive enrichment. Wordplay and roleplaying stimulate metalinguistic skills, helping children manipulate language structures and explore semantic ambiguities from an early age (Bates & MacWhinney, 1987). The increased interest in phraseology in linguistics as a comparative approach is a good example. Play reveals itself as a driving force for language socialization, allowing individuals to progressively get used to the discursive and communicative norms (Snow, 1999). This phenomenon does not limit itself to childhood, as recent research shows that play is an efficient method for language learning throughout one’s life, including adulthood. In educational and professional contexts, play promotes involvement, improves pragmatic understanding and allows the development of linguistic skills in a way that’s interactive and incentive.

From a historical perspective, the ’70s were a pivotal point in the history of games. In 1972, Nolan Bushnell’s company Atari introduced Pong to the world, a game that transcended traditional pieces and boards by using a screen and an interface with buttons and joysticks, marking the beginning of videogames. This new gaming system brought new dimensions and ways of play. Pac-Man, Super Mario Bros., Sonic the Hedgehog, and Street Fighter would not exist without Pong. In some games, the question of language plays a more or less central role in the narrative: this is the case, for example, with No Man’s Sky, Tunic and Chant of Sennaar, in which players have to translate ancient or unknown languages. Other games, such as Adibou and Aventura and the Letters, target a younger audience and integrate language into the gameplay for educational purposes. However, even if they do not purposefully have an educational intent, in the virtual world, videogames can serve as a learning tool in some cases, such as a learning aid for today’s English learners.

The social and interpersonal sphere of games is not limited to its ludic aspect. Board games, for example, are increasingly used in psychotherapy to solve conflicts, especially in family therapy and marriage counselling. By promoting communication and interaction between the participants, these games provide a new way of exploring and modifying relationship dynamics while maintaining a secure and structured space for learning conflict resolution strategies (Bensalah et al., 2016). Therefore, participants are able to test alternative behaviour patterns and build social and emotional skills (Kriz, 2003). In linguistics subfields such as sociolinguistics, games can be used as an elicitation strategy to collect more accurate data about interviewees’ casual speech.

When it comes to intimate relationships, the language elements of erotic games help with exploring desire and consent. Verbal or not, language gives structure to the interactions of partners attempting to negotiate, to express their expectations and set their boundaries. Henceforth, leading to a better mutual understanding and the establishment of a respectful and consensual dynamic (Barker, 2018). This highlights the importance of discourse rituals and shared language codes for building pleasure and intimacy, presenting language as a central role in setting the mood and experiential facet of the erotic game (Foucault, 1978).

Evidently, games are not confined solely to the educational and interpersonal relationships sphere: they play an important role in arts and entertainment. As early as the Middle Ages, the first profane literature written in French employed ludic formulations (le fabliau to prompt laughter and to share morals, le jeu as the literary form preceding plays) or game staging (language jousters and deceits).

As mentioned in the texts of the Ouvroir de littérature potentielle, or Oulipo, this tradition of playing with language is gaining importance while increasing in craftiness and subtleness with the evolution of linguistic tools. Representative members of the Oulipo bring into their compositions the dynamics and mathematical mechanics of games by imposing rules and fixed formal constraints. Since playing with language also involves creating new rules and to define it differently. Language then becomes a game board where grammar, syntax, and semantics turn into pawns to move, conquer, and defeat:

[The Oulipians] defend the value of play and challenge its separateness from the serious. [P]lay can have instrumental value. […] Queneau pointed out that “recreational mathematics” had stimulated the development of topology, number theory, probability, and game theory, implying that the Oulipo’s “recreational poetics” could do the same for literary theory and practice. The benefits of playing can also be more direct. [T]he Oulipians have testified in their lives and their fictions to the protective powers of play as a psychological defence mechanism (Andrews, 2022).

Nevertheless, inventing rules is not enough: occasionally, we do have to overlook some rules or exceed certain limits for the sake of the game. When language is in question, games can rhyme with deceitfulness, wittiness, slyness, and an unexpected ludic transgression of the expected. As an example, the Nouveau Roman or New Novel literary genre comes to mind, with authors working towards gamifying the conventional 19^th century’s novelistic approach to writing—since, after all, some perceive the formal constraints of literary genres as unwritten rules to follow. The crossing of genres is then, among others, a way to subvert these conventions without openly playing with, but instead within language itself.

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IMPORTANT DATES

Proposal submission deadline: May 20, 2025

Notification of acceptance: June 2025

Conference dates: November 13 and 14, 2025 (in person at Université de Montréal)

For further information : vocum.ca − info@vocum.ca