Helsinki
Finland
We would like to draw your attention to the panel that we are organising as part of the 20th International Pragmatics Conference (IPC20), which will take place at the University of Helsinki in June 2027:
Official parliamentary transcripts and video recordings as research data in pragmatics
(Räikkönen, Sandberg & Voutilainen)
During the past few decades, there has been increasing interest in the research on parliamentary debates from pragmatic and discourse perspectives. Most past studies on the pragmatics of parliamentary debates have been based on official parliamentary transcripts prepared in parliaments. However, using official parliamentary transcripts as data can pose certain challenges in pragmatics and other linguistic analyses. For instance, transcription and editorial practices vary from one parliament to the next, making cross-linguistic and cross-cultural comparisons difficult. Moreover, post-editing of contributions in the reports raises questions about whether such analyses provide insight into the language used in the parliamentary sittings themselves or rather the language of the reports (see e.g., Slembrouck 1992; Mollin 2007; Hiltunen, Räikkönen, & Tyrkkö 2020; Tyrkkö & Kotze 2023; Voutilainen 2023). The official video recordings, on the other hand, also follow a certain tradition of portraying parliamentary sessions, which might prove limiting in some research traditions.
The goal of this panel is to bring together linguists who utilise official video recordings or transcripts of parliamentary sittings in their research. We welcome individual researchers and research teams interested in parliamentary discourse and rhetoric, representing diverse research traditions and methodological approaches to present their work, share experiences and discuss different ways of using these data in linguistic studies. Presentations may focus on video recordings or reports of sittings in any parliament. They can also be multi- or interdisciplinary. Here are some examples of possible topics:
What kinds of pragmatic phenomena can be studied using parliamentary transcripts or video recordings from parliamentary sittings as data?
What types of methodological approaches are suitable for studying pragmatic phenomena in different types of parliamentary corpora?
What types of challenges do transcription traditions pose for studies in pragmatics?
What differences exist between official parliamentary transcripts of different countries and between transcripts produced in different time periods?
Please submit your abstract (up to 500 words) via the conference website (https://ipra2027.exordo.com/) by 15 October 2026. In step 4 (‘Topics’) of the submission process select the panel ‘Official parliamentary transcripts and video recordings as research data in pragmatics’. Further information on submitting abstracts can be found in the IPC20 Call for Papers (https://pragmatics.international/page/CfP2027). Please note that an active IPrA membership is required to submit an abstract. If you have any further questions regarding the panel, please feel free to contact us directly.