DETEC (Discourse Expectations: Theoretical, Experimental and Computational Perspectives)

the next edition of DETEC (Discourse Expectations: Theoretical, Experimental and Computational Perspectives), a conference series dedicated to the study of expectation-driven discourse processing. Following successful previous instalments in 2013, 2015, 2017, and 2019, DETEC 2026 aims to bring the community back together to take stock of recent developments and explore new directions in the study of discourse expectations.

Where: Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands

When: Thursday September 17 – Friday September 18 2026

Website: https://detec2026.sites.uu.nl/

Registration: https://detec2026.sites.uu.nl/registration/

Programme: https://detec2026.sites.uu.nl/program/ 

Topic:

Comprehenders continuously generate expectations about upcoming linguistic material using information from multiple sources, including lexical and morpho-syntactic cues, prosody, discourse structure, world knowledge, and communicative goals. These expectations shape processing at all levels, from reference resolution and coherence relations to pragmatic inference and conversational implicature.

DETEC 2026 provides a forum for interdisciplinary exchange between theoretical, experimental, and computational approaches to discourse expectations.

Local organisers

• Merel C.J. Scholman, m.c.j.scholman@uu.nl
• Jet Hoek, jet.hoek@ru.nl
• Ted J.M. Sanders, t.j.m.sanders@uu.nl

We hope to see you in Utrecht on 17-18 September. All ILS’ers are welcome!

Best wishes,

Merel Scholman, Jet Hoek and Ted Sanders

*This conference is organized with support from the Dutch Research Council (NWO) as part of the project “Searching for meaning: Identifying and interpreting alternative discourse relation signals in multi-modal language comprehension”, VI.Veni.231C.021.