2027 Summer School
Academia Grammaticorum Salensis Vigesima Quarta
Mapping Meaning across Languages and Minds
August 1 – 7 2027, Antalieptė, Lithuania
This year’s summer school explores lexical meaning from four interconnected perspectives: typological, cognitive, psycholinguistic, and computational.
Languages differ in how they organize and lexicalize semantic distinctions: meanings expressed by separate words in one language may be expressed by a single form in another. At the same time, such cross-linguistic patterns are not arbitrary, but show recurrent regularities that may reflect historical, functional, and cognitive factors.
The summer school brings together different approaches to these questions. A typological perspective examines how lexical meanings can be compared across languages, which meanings tend to be expressed together or separately, and what may explain recurrent cross-linguistic patterns. A bilingual-cognition perspective asks what happens when one speaker knows languages that categorize experience differently, and whether bilingual experience can reshape conceptualization. A psycholinguistic perspective focuses on how word meanings are represented and processed in the mental lexicon, particularly in cases of lexical ambiguity and polysemy. Finally, distributional semantics introduces computational and quantitative tools for investigating lexical meaning through patterns of language use.
Together, the courses address a broader question: how are patterns of lexical meaning across languages related to conceptual organization, lexical-semantic representation, and language use? By bringing these approaches into dialogue, the summer school aims to encourage exchange across linguistic subfields and provide participants with both theoretical perspectives and methodological tools for investigating lexical meaning.
The programme is primarily aimed at advanced MA and PhD students and early-career researchers in linguistics, particularly those working in lexical semantics, linguistic typology, cognitive linguistics, bilingualism, psycholinguistics, computational linguistics, language acquisition, and related fields.
All four courses are at the PhD level. Participants who attend all courses and complete all tasks will be awarded 3 ECTS credits by Vilnius University.
Programme
I. Lexical meaning between languages — Martin Haspelmath, Leipzig University (confirmed)
The course introduces lexical typology and addresses how meanings can be compared across languages. Topics include coexpression and colexification, semantic maps, recurrent cross-linguistic patterns of lexicalization, and possible explanations involving conceptual similarity, semantic change, frequency, informativeness, and communicative efficiency. It will also consider the relationship between lexical and grammatical typology and what conclusions about cognition can legitimately be drawn from typological evidence.
II. Lexical meaning in the bilingual mind — Panos Athanasopoulos, Lund University (to be confirmed)
This course moves from differences between languages to speakers who know more than one language. It asks what happens when a bilingual knows languages that categorize or lexicalize experience differently, whether speakers of different languages conceptualize aspects of experience differently, and whether learning and using another language can reshape patterns of categorization and perception.
III. Computational approaches to distributional semantics — Florent Perek, University of Birmingham (to be confirmed)
This course introduces distributional approaches to lexical meaning, with a focus on semantic vectors and their use in linguistic research. Participants will learn the basic principles behind vector representations of meaning and explore applications relevant to the other courses, including cross-linguistic semantic comparison, semantic change, semantic mapping, and word-sense disambiguation in context.
IV. Lexical meaning in the mental lexicon — Jennifer Rodd, University College London (to be confirmed)
This course examines how word meanings are represented and processed by individual speakers, with particular attention to lexical ambiguity and polysemy. Topics include the representation of related senses and unrelated meanings, meaning dominance, contextual disambiguation, and the effects of frequency, recent experience, and learning on lexical-semantic representations.
Conference
One day of the summer school is dedicated to a conference with presentations and a poster session, which forms an integral part of the program. This event gives participants the chance to present their research and receive constructive feedback in an encouraging setting. It underscores our focus on collaboration by enabling participants to refine their work through feedback, share research interests, engage in dialogue with peers, and establish new academic contacts.
Preliminary schedule
Target group
The summer school is primarily aimed at advanced MA and PhD students and early-career researchers in linguistics. It will be particularly relevant to students working in lexical semantics, linguistic typology, cognitive linguistics, bilingualism, psycholinguistics, language acquisition, and related fields. Participants from different theoretical and methodological backgrounds will be encouraged to engage with approaches outside their immediate field and to consider how these may contribute to their own research. This follows the established Salos model of targeting early-career researchers while remaining open to participants from different academic levels and linguistic traditions.
Accommodation and board
The summer school will take place at the “Inovatorių slėnis” (Innovators’ Valley) cultural hub in Antalieptė, a small charming village in northeastern Lithuania. Attendants of the summer school will be accommodated in one of two distinctive locations, each offering its own special appeal:
- The “Medus” (“Honey”) laboratory: Spacious and cozy rooms (4-5 beds each) ensure a comfortable rest after a day of engaging lectures. This area is located in the same building where the lectures and coffee breaks take place, meaning it will be a lively and dynamic environment throughout the day.
- The Discalced Carmelites Monastery: More basic accommodation with rooms for 4–8 people. It provides an unforgettable atmosphere as it is a fascinating historic site which has served various purposes over the years. Besides having been a monastery, throughout history it has also served as an orphanage, a school, a military base, and an agricultural technical school. Breakfast, lunch and dinner will be served in the monastery.
As you’ve probably gathered, participants will share rooms. Although this might make you remember times in a summer camp, this experience fosters a strong sense of community and creates opportunities for late-night linguistic discussions—if your roommates are up for it, of course! And if you are a fan of an active lifestyle, a morning swim in the pond might be just the thing you didn’t know you needed. There is also a lake 2 km away.
While there is a café in the monastery, full board (i.e. breakfast, lunch, and dinner) is provided by the organizers and included in the attendance fee. The food is hearty and tasty, rooted in the local cuisine and prepared with care and dedication by the Antalieptė locals. Vegan and vegetarian options will be available. If you have special dietary needs, please let us know in the registration form, and our cooks will do their best to accommodate you. There is also a shop in the village where you can buy basic food items, sweets, snacks, and drinks.
Social program
The uniqueness of the summer school is also connected to its venue. The event takes place in a historic monastery complex in the small village of Antalieptė in North-Eastern Lithuania. Participants get away from all other distractions and spend a week solely in the company of nature and other linguists. They live in the monastery complex, share meals, and spend evenings by the lakeshore or around the campfire, engaging in lively discussions and singing along in a variety of languages. The pond right beside the monastery (or a lake 20 minutes away by foot) offers the possibility for a swim – even during the break between the lectures. One of the available evening activities is a traditional sauna session.
The summer school traditionally has been accompanied by other cultural events: concerts, theater performances, village fairs. This year is also set to include a range of activities which are usually attended not only by linguists, but also by the locals from Antalieptė.
How to apply
Participation fee
How to get to Antalieptė
A bus will be arranged for participants traveling from Vilnius to Antalieptė.