Prof. Alexander Mehler from Goethe University Frankfurt is going to give a lecture as part of the LIfBi Lectures series. 

The talk locates the evolving methods for processing natural language texts within the framework of the semiotic triangle and emphasizes the need to integrate the corresponding diversity of methods into the social sciences by means of a suitable architecture. It then discusses three areas of application, characterized by an increasing degree of dynamics (from written to oral communication) and virtualization (regarding the immersion of discourse situations). The first of these areas concerns an analysis of individual text reception through the lens of Critical Online Reasoning. It then examines linguistic phenomena of everyday creativity, demonstrating the need for a mixed-methods approach to critically compare human and artificial language production. This approach, grounded in objective hermeneutics, aims to overcome the limitations of traditional creativity tests, which often rely on language fragments generated in laboratory situations. By contrasting these limitations with the dynamics of dialogic communication, the talk highlights the value of dialogic creativity. The third part provides an outlook on virtual reality methodologies that facilitate the multimodal processing of communicative events in simulation-based learning environments. In this way, the talk navigates the information landscape of language-related social science approaches through three progressive examples, advocating for a shift from individual information processing to participatory, dialogic, and multimodal communication dynamics.