๐ฃ Abstraction seminars are back!
๐๏ธ 13 February 2026, 10:30 (Rome time, UTC+1)
๐ Bologna (in presenza) or
๐ป Microsoft Teams (link: shorturl.at/dBI5L)
๐ Join us for another seminar, details in the figure!
๐ Save the date & spread the word!
โจ
@abstractionerc.bsky.social
Our ritual picture during lunch break ๐:
Team @abstractionerc.bsky.social and the invited speaker @kristinadespot.bsky.social discussing metaphors around the table!
@mariannabolog.bsky.social @caterinavillani.bsky.social @lauraocchipinti.bsky.social
@paolavernillo
@kristinadespot.bsky.social on the truthfulness of metaphor in conceptual metaphor theory
@abstractionerc.bsky.social
In collaboration with @andreadevarda.bsky.social
Andrea Amelio Ravelli @chiarasaponaro.bsky.social @beatricegiustolisi.bsky.social @mariannabolog.bsky.social
๐จ IconicITA dataset is now available!
We present Italian iconicity ratings from L1 and L2 speakers showing that more iconic words are more specific, and that higher L2 proficiency boosts sensitivity to formโmeaning resemblance in L1.
๐ More details in the paper:
journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
Say hi to the IconicITA dataset!
We introduce iconicity ratings for Italian produced by L1 and L2 speakers, and show how iconicity relates to key psycholinguistic variables and chronometric data.
Note: Specificity emerges as a good predictor of iconicity! journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
Per chi fosse interessato a leggere cosa fa il gruppo ABSTRACTION @erc.europa.eu , ecco il flipbook interattivo con gli studi condotti fino ad oggi (in lingua italiana).
heyzine.com/flip-book/61...
Il flipbook accompagna un video introduttivo, che trovate qui:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIqc...
๐ฃ Abstraction seminars are back!
๐๏ธ 12 December, 10:30 (CET)
๐๏ธProf.ssa Kristina S. Despot
๐Metaphor literalization strategy: From concrete to abstract and back to concrete again
๐ Bologna
๐ป Microsoft Teams (link: shorturl.at/B4H7R)
๐ Save the date & spread the word!
โจ@abstractionerc.bsky.social
New theoretical paper: โBeyond concreteness: why word specificity is the missing piece in theories on embodied language comprehensionโ
shorturl.at/6Rv3Y
Included in the special issue
"Rethinking the Embodiment of Language: Challenges and Future Horizons", led by V. Cuccio, V. Gallese & Y. Shtyrov.
E oggi ho condiviso con il centro interdipartimentale Alma AI e un gruppo di colleghe e colleghi giuristi capitanati da Monica Palmirani i risultati a grandi linee del gruppo @abstractionerc.bsky.social su studi che coinvolgono l'uso di LLMs. Questa settimana รจ decisamente densa :-)
Dopo il seminario di Valentina Cuccio con una delegazionedi Abstraction, nel magnifico chiostro del dipartimento di storia, San Giovanni in Monte, Bologna.
Seeing this slide after completing my postdoc at @abstractionerc.bsky.social makes me emotional. Great talk of @mariannabolog.bsky.social at the workshop "Large and Small Language Models: stato dellโarte fra limiti e prospettive" at Unibo. Many works about abstraction and LLM are on the horizon! :)
Prof. Valentina Cuccio kicks off her seminar asking whether there are any cross-cutting, neglected dimensions that can explain the concreteness effect. She elaborates on the modality of acquisition of concepts
@abstractionerc.bsky.social
Filippo Domaneschi, director of the Lab of Language and Cognition presenting at @abstractionerc.bsky.social on the reclamation of slurs, discussing pragmatic and psycholinguistic aspects in relation to abstraction mechanisms
Veronica Repetti explaining variation in animacy, alienability and syntactic structure of concrete and abstract possession, this morning for the second @abstractionerc.bsky.social seminar.
All seminars are recorded and posted on site.unibo.it/abstraction/...
Another academic year at @abstractionerc.bsky.social starts with the seminar of prof. Filippo Domaneschi with his talk "Concretely offensive: the processing of reclaimed slurs". Recordings of the talk will be posted here:
site.unibo.it/abstraction/...
Dinner time, to keep the discussion going with our invited speakers Prof Filippo Domaneschi and Dott. Veronica Repetti
๐ฃ November's Abstraction seminar is all set too!
๐๏ธ 19 November, 11:30 - 12.30 (CEST)
๐ Bologna (in presenza) or ๐ป Microsoft Teams (link: shorturl.at/xW7mF )
๐ Join us, details in the figure!
๐ Save the date & spread the word!
โจ
@abstractionerc.bsky.social
A big thank you also to the Scientific Administrators of #XPRAG.it, @valentinabambini.bsky.social and @filippodomaneschi, for this picture at #TrinityCollege, and for the great recent conversations!
Can't wait for the next conference in Genoa in 2026! ๐ย #XPRAG.it2026
So glad to have partecipated in the #XPRAG2025 conference during its 20th anniversary! ๐ (see the cake in the picture ๐คฃ)
This was my second time in this amazing community, and I had some truly insightful discussions! ๐ฃ๏ธ
A big thank to the organizers!!
Excited to share that I contributed to an article just published in #Nature. My role was on the cognitive side, as part of a collaboration evolved from a fantastic #Dagstuhl seminar.
Collective works like these are crucial windows into where our communities are going!
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
This was a project conducted with
@andreaaravelli, @mariannabolog.bsky.social, and @gabriellavigliocco.bsky.social
Excited to share that @abstractionerc.bsky.social has even reached #CambridgeUniversity and #TrinityCollege!
Yesterday, at the #XPrag2025 conference, I presented how speakers maximize the informativeness of their descriptions in naturalistic conversations.
Thanks for the insightful discussions!
Glad to be at #XPrag2025 at the #UniversityOfCambridge!
Day 1 was packed with fascinating talks and exciting discussions!
๐ฃThe chapter "๐ฆ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ๐ถ๐ฐ๐ถ๐๐: ๐ ๐ฒ๐๐ฟ๐ถ๐ฐ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐ก๐ผ๐ฟ๐บ๐"
w/@mariannabolog.bsky.social is now online & forthcoming in the #ElsevierEncyclopedia of Language & Linguistics
๐ Theoretical overview, quantification tools, and behavioral evidence on specificity.
๐ Read: urly.it/31c4nm
@abstractionerc.bsky.social
๐ฃ Abstraction seminars are back!
๐๏ธ 17 October, 10:00 (CEST)
๐ Bologna (in presenza) or ๐ป Microsoft Teams (link: shorturl.at/RjrOU)
๐ Join us for another seminar, details in the figure!
๐ Save the date & spread the word!
โจ
@abstractionerc.bsky.social
๐ฃ Abstraction seminars are back!
๐๏ธ 16 October, 15:00 (CEST)
๐ Bologna (in presenza) or ๐ป Microsoft Teams (link: shorturl.at/0fw5a)
๐ Join us for a thought-provoking seminar, details in the figure!
๐ Save the date & spread the word! โจ
@abstractionerc.bsky.social
Excited to be at #ESCOP for the first time! ๐ฃ๏ธ
Presenting a joint project with @abstractionerc.bsky.social, @mariannabolog.bsky.social and @gabriellavigliocco.bsky.social on naturalistic interactions.
Key finding: Speakers use more specific and informative language as a communicative strategy
@abstractionerc.bsky.social
@caterinavillani.bsky.social
@mariannabolog.bsky.social
