International Conference on

Discourse approaches to financial communication

Bridging the gap between texts and markets
February 2-6, 2014
Centro Stefano Franscini Monte Verit Ascona Switzerland
www.dafc.usi.ch

CALL FOR PAPERS

Keynote Speakers
Niamh Brennan, University College Dublin (Ireland) Russell Craig, Victoria University (Australia) Daphne Jameson, Cornell University (USA) Tim Loughran, Mendoza Business School, University of Notre Dame (USA) Catherine Resche-Ricard, Universit Panthon-Assas - Paris 2 (France) Robert Schumaker, Central Connecticut State University (USA)

Conference scope
During the last decade, financial communication texts including corporate compulsory and voluntary disclosures, analysts recommendations, rating announcements, central banks reports and speeches, financial news stories and other media (e.g. blogs, forums) have been increasingly investigated from different perspectives. Scholars in Accounting and Finance recognize linguistic and textual data as significant, respectively, for evaluating the quality of financial disclosures and for predicting market sentiment and security prices. Their interest for the language used in financial texts naturally converges with the research concerns of scholars in the humanities (including Linguistics, Rhetoric and Argumentation Theory), who have explored the different discourse genres of financial communication, relying linguistic choices and conventions to communication strategies and reconstructing their narrative and argumentative organization. In these strands of research language and discourse are not treated as neutral carriers of information, but are increasingly viewed as strategic resources for collective sense-making and persuasion as well as means for shaping the institutional realities of the financial markets. The conference on Discourse approaches to financial communication (DAFC) aims at bringing together scholars who, from different scientific backgrounds, are interested in understanding the linguistic, rhetorical and argumentative functions of the narrative parts of financial disclosures and of other financially relevant documents, and, eventually, their impact on investment decisions and market transactions. By creating the occasion for close interdisciplinary dialogue between these diverse disciplines, the conference will enable developing a common research agenda on financial communication centered on the systematic analysis of financial discourse.

Location
The Centro Stefano Franscini (http://www.csf.ethz.ch) is the congress centre of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology of Zurich (ETH Zurich) situated at Monte Verit in the surroundings of Ascona, Switzerland (www.monteverita.org). Ascona is on the north-western shore of Lake Maggiore, on the large delta of the River Maggia. This centre has hosted several international events that brought together numerous members of the international scientific community across a range of research disciplines.

Conference organizers
Andrea Rocci, Institute of Argumentation, Linguistics and Semiotics, USI Franois Degeorge, Swiss Finance Institute, USI Laurent Gautier, Centre Interlangues Texte Image Langage, Universit de Bourgogne Rudi Palmieri, Institute of Argumentation, Linguistics and Semiotics, USI

Scientific Committee
Giovanni Barone-Adesi (Universit della Svizzera italiana), Irmtraud Behr (Universit Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3), Niamh Brennan (University College Dublin), Russell Craig (Victoria University), Franois Degeorge (Universit della Svizzera italiana), Laurent Gautier (Universit de Bourgogne), Patrick Gagliardini (Universit della Svizzera italiana), Edith Ginglinger (Universit Paris-Dauphine), Thomas Goodnight (University of Southern California), Sandy Green (California State University Northridge), Geert Jacobs (Ghent University), Matthieu Llorca (Universit de Bourgogne), Tim Loughran (University of Notre Dame), Jens Martin (University of Amsterdam), Doris Merkl-Davies (Bangor University), Rudi Palmieri (Universit della Svizzera italiana), Andrea Rocci (Universit della Svizzera italiana), Catherine Resche-Ricard (Universit Panthon-Assas - Paris 2), Rob Schumaker (Central Connecticut State University), Renata Stenka (University of Reading), Michel Van Der Yeught (Universit de Provence Aix-Marseille I).

Abstract submission
The conference organizes both regular paper sessions and PhD paper sessions. Submission deadline: September 30, 2013 (EXTENDED!) In order to submit an abstract, please, create a Conftool account at: http://dafc2014.elearninglab.org. Submissions should include a one-page abstract of maximum 300 words, the name of the author(s), position, affiliation, contact details and should specify whether a regular paper or a PhD paper is proposed. Abstracts will be evaluated by the Scientific Committee in terms of relevance, quality and originality. NB: the Conftool account is used only for the submission of abstracts, the registration to the conference must be made through the CSF online platform (see below) Relevant topics include but are not limited to: 1. Discourse genres of financial communication
Discourse and genre analysis of corporate financial disclosures (e.g. annual reports, quarterly announcements, M&A documents), emergent genres (e.g. analysts and investors conferences). The discourse of information intermediaries (e.g. Rating agencies announcements, Analysts recommendations, printed and online news articles. comments and opinions). Financial news discourse, the genres and practices of financial newsmaking, the treatment of sources in financial journalism, sociological and anthropological approaches to financial newswriting practices, financial news and the social media. The discourse of financial regulation (e.g. the discourse of central banks, discursive interactions in international accounting standard setting process).

2. Capturing meaning construction in financial discourse

Cognitive-semantic frames and financial knowledge in expert and lay financial discourse. Constructions, key phrases, and key-words. The analysis of factuality, modality, probability and (un-)certainty in financial discourse: combining discourse analysis, corpus linguistics and natural language processing. The analysis of evaluative language, affect, verbally expressed sentiment in financial discourse: enhancing sentiment analysis with discourse analysis. The cognitive, affective and persuasive role of metaphors in financial discourse.

3. Rhetoric and argumentation in financial discourse

The persuasive design of corporate reporting documents and other financial discourse genres. Ethos, logos and pathos in financial discourse. Investigating impression management and attribution bias in managerial reporting. Narrative analysis of financial documents. Narrative voices, implied writers and readers. Analyzing argumentation in financial discourse. Reconstructing argumentative strategies. Detecting bias, fallacies and irrationality through argument analysis. Critical and normative perspectives on financial rhetoric (argumentation theory, critical discourse analysis). Linking argumentation quality and investment quality.

4. The relevance of financial discourse for financial market predictions

The role of the soft information vs. hard information contained in financial texts in determining market price. Mining financial texts (e.g. disclosures, news reports) to enhance security price predictions: exploring the predictive value of different indicators (e.g. the role of length, readability, parts-of-speech distribution, etc.). Using the linguistic analysis of narrative parts in disclosures to predict default risk and to detect fraud in financial statements. The predictive value of evaluative stance and (un-)certainty in disclosure texts. Models for linking verbally expressed sentiment and market sentiment. Going beyond the bag of words. How discourse analysis and the study of financial discourse genres can enhance automatic methods of text analysis in finance (e.g. exploiting genre specific structural cues, tagging rhetorical moves, extracting argumentative structures).

Paper publication
Online Publication of long abstracts All accepted speakers can publish a long abstract of their paper online. Long abstracts must not exceed 1000 words (references excluded) and should comply with the template published on the conference website: www.dafc.usi.ch (the website will be published in the first week of June) Book/Journal publication The publication of a selection of the papers presented at the conference in book/journal formats is envisaged. Further information will be given during the conference.

Deadlines
Deadline for abstract submissions: September 30, 2013 (EXTENDED) Notification of acceptance: October 15, 2013 Early registration: October 31, 2013 Deadline for long abstracts: December 10, 2013 Registration deadline (for contributors): February 2, 2014 Conference: February 2-6, 2014

Conference fee
Until October 31 (Early registration) Standard Rate Doctoral Students Rate From November 1 Standard Rate Doctoral Students Rate 400 CHF 300 CHF 300 CHF 200 CHF

Board and lodging fee

Participants will be accommodated in the Centro Stefano Franscini at Monte Verit. The fee will include full board, coffee breaks and lodging. Please note that rooms in the Centro Stefano Franscini are limited and will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. Double Room (4 days): CHF 800 (price per person, including full board) Single Room (4 days): CHF 850 (including full board) Double room for single use (4 days): CHF 1020 (including full board)

Sponsoring of two PhD o early post-doc researchers

Thanks to the support of BSI Gamma Foundation, the DAFC organizers are able to provide scholarships for PhD students or early post-doctoral researchers intending to present their work at the conference. The BSI Gamma Foundation scholarship for the DAFC conference consists of two awards of up to CHF 1,000 for PhD students and early post-doc researchers presenting at the conference. The awards must be employed to cover the conference registration fee, board and lodging at the Centro Stefano Franscini and travel expenses up to the awarded amount. Eligibility. Applicants must be either currently enrolled as PhD students or have already obtained their Ph.D. no more than 2 years ago. They must be authors (or co-author) of an abstract submitted for regular paper or a PhD paper presentation at the DAFC conference. Applications. Applicants will need to submit the following: Updated CV University transcript or another suitable certification of their status of PhD students / early post-doc.

Declaration that they have submitted an abstract for DAFC via the conference administration tool (http://dafc2014.elearninglab.org). Please, do not include your abstract submission in your scholarship application. Applications should be sent via e-mail to this address: [email protected]. Evaluation. The evaluation of the applications will be carried out by the DAFC conference organizers after the end of the review process carried out by the Scientific Committee, taking into account the outcome of the anonymous review process of the submitted abstracts. Deadline to Submit Applications: September 30, 2013 Scholarship Decisions Announced: November 15, 2013

Conference registration
Participants can register to the conference starting from November 1, 2013. Registration must be made through the CSF online platform (http://www.csf.ethz.ch/onlineplatform/index).

Conference website: www.dafc.usi.ch For further information: [email protected] (person of contact: dr. Rudi Palmieri)