Blog CRC1646

The Projects A01, A04 & C01 jointly organised a workshop on “Priming, Analogy, and Linguistic Creativity” (PALC) in May, 27–29, 2026 at the Bielefeld University.

The aim of PALC was to shed light on the nature of priming and analogy, their relation to each other, and the relation of both to linguistic creativity. During the three-day workshop, 13 presentations addressed these topics and provided insights based on different phenomena, languages, and a wide range of methodological approaches.

Five keynote speeches and several talks from the organizing projects set the stage for enlightening discussion sessions on „Analogy“ on Wednesday and a general discussion regarding „Priming, Analogy, and Linguistic Creativity“ on Friday. The keynote series was opened by Holly Branigan (University of Edinburgh) and her talk entitled „Mind the (knowledge) gap – priming and analogy in language acquisition“. She was followed by Sandra Pappert (Heidelberg University) who addressed the question „Structural priming by analogy: Repetitive or creative?“. Elsi H. Kaiser’s presentation (University of Southern California) supplied evidence for „Priming and analogy in language and beyond: On motor actions and emoji“. In her talk „Converge, diverge; predict - surprise!, and what jazz and talking may have in common“, Iva Ivanova (University of Texas at El Paso) discussed in her talk entitled „Converge, diverge; predict – suprise, and what jazz and talking may have in common“ properties that affect the likelihood of non-conventionalised linguistic expressions and how these might apply to music as well. The final keynote speech „Cross-linguistic influence and structural innovation“ by Sarah Bernolet (University of Antwerp) approached the topics of PALC by analysing language contact.

Ioli Baroncini (Mannheim University) introduced another area of research on priming in her project proposal presentation entitled „Conversational Alignment and Language Change in Human–AI Interaction“. The project aims to investigate whether linguistic expressions from interactions with AI language learning tools are adopted and spread within a broader speech community, thereby triggering language change.

On behalf of the CRC, members of the three organising projects presented their current work on creative phenomena and their relation to analogy and priming:

• For the project A01, András Bárány and Jutta M. Hartmann introduced the research goals in their talk „Linguistic Creativity in (Morpho) Syntax: Considering the role of Analogy“. Fabian Zöfelt presented new data from his case study: „Extraction from complement-like wenn-clauses: Evidence for reanalysis in Austrian German“. Szilvia Daczó addressed methodological issues and aimed to answer the question „How not to measure analogy in morphosyntax“.
• For A04, based on an experiment on a creative ‘causative’ passive construction, Robert Lange and Eleonore Laubenstein addressed the question „Do priming and analogy support the acceptability of grammatical extravagance?“ In Ralf Vogel’s talk „On the effectiveness of analogy in filling grammatical gaps“, inter-speaker variation in the acceptability of creative expressions was discussed with respect to the background of speakers.
• For C01, Joana Cholin and Jana Häussler presented empirical results in their talk „Priming and analogy in creative word formation: Response patterns in a Prompted Word Creation Task“, arguing that analogy, as a cognitive mechanism, plays a role in the formation of new words when it comes to reflecting semantic aspects in form.

Overall, this workshop not only provided a perfect opportunity for the three projects---and for the PhD students in particular---to present current research and discuss ideas. They also benefited greatly from the feedback regarding conceptual, methodological, and theoretical aspects during the presentations and one-to-one discussions with the invited speakers during the workshop. Furthermore, the discussion sessions on the topic of analogy---and in particular the general discussion at the end of the workshop---helped to develop more concrete ideas about how one might view the relationship between priming, analogy, and linguistic creativity.

Link to the conference page with programm

The organising projects:

Projekt A01:

From left to right: Jutta Hartmann, András Bárány, Fabian Zöfelt & Szilvia Daszó

Photo: Sascha Hermannski © SFB 1646

Project A04:

Front row, from left to right: Robert Lange, Jana Häussler, Eleonore Laubenstein & Ralf Vogel

Back row, from left to right: Frederic Mohme-Steineberg & Nils Rauterberg

Photo: Sascha Hermannski © SFB 1646

Project C01:

Front row, from left to right: Jana Häussler & Dilara Balaban

Back row, from left to right: Joana Cholin, Lisa Hudalla & Amelie Ewald

Photo: Sascha Hermannski © SFB 1646