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Lexical Variation and Knowledge Construction across Historical, Methodological, and Cultural Ecologies
May 2026
Book
Editor(s):
Rossella Latorraca,
Rita Calabrese,
Jacqueline Aiello and
Dirk Geeraerts
Lexical Variation and Knowledge Construction across Historical Methodological and Cultural Ecologies provides a comprehensive examination of the intricate interplay between language and knowledge viewing words not as mere vessels but as dynamic agents that sculpt our understanding of the world. Contributions of leading scholars from linguistics lexicography and related disciplines are presented in a tripartite structure —historical methodological and sociocultural— illustrating how this interplay unfolds across diverse contexts from the depths of historical lexicography to methodological innovation and sociocultural analyses of language and identity. Drawing on a wide range of data sources and analytical frameworks its multidimensional perspective on the interaction between language and cognition makes this book a crucial resource for both scholars and learners inviting readers to rethink the very foundations of how we communicate and understand our reality.
The Loss of Primordial Language and the Future of National Languages
Mar 2026
Book
Editor(s):
Irene Capdevila and
Francesc Feliu
The modern world to the extent that it disassociates us from the secular traditional world from the “primordial” jobs and words that support the cultural particularity forged over the centuries weakens the borders between languages. Neologisms bring languages closer together irreversibly and the loss of primordial words (the local ways of designating a plant or a bird the words that designated instruments that are no longer used) often accelerated by standardization processes which impose a term above all other possibilities weakens the distinctions and singularity of languages. From this point of view linguistic diversity seems typical of a less globalized world and languages with less communicative influence seem doomed to dissolution. The ideology of the national language has weakened and almost extinguished in many cases the internal dialectal diversity of the languages. Could it be that now for this same reason these national languages specially those with reduced dimensions and lacking a projection beyond their historical territories are in danger? What role can the preservation of the primordial language play in the attempt to combat the dynamics of linguistic globalization? These reflections are the focus of the contributions included in this volume.
Literature as Experience-Inviting Discourse
Jan 2026
Book
Author(s):
Anders Pettersson
Literature as Experience-Inviting Discourse presents a general perspective on the art of literature starting from the questions of what literature is how it works and what it is for. It is a main theme in the book that what we typically call literature is written to be read and freely experienced – it is “experience-inviting discourse” meant for “experience-oriented reading”. This central idea leads to a number of important literary-theoretical topics. Among the issues addressed in depth are the structure of verbal communication the makeup of the concept of literature the psychology of literary reading and the relationship between literary criticism and experience-oriented reading. On this last point the author underlines the difference in purpose between critical and experience-oriented reading. What we typically call literature is written for offering worthwhile experiences not for being made the object of literary-critical observations no matter how valuable these may be in their own way.
A Linguistic Comparison of Chinese and English : Structural, functional, and typological perspectives
Jan 2026
Book
Author(s):
Chao Li
The book examines similarities and differences between Chinese and English from structural functional and typological perspectives. The linguistic comparison undertaken covers various aspects of the two languages including for example typological features the phonological system the writing system morphological structure syntactic structure and information structure. The book often relates the comparison of the two languages to linguistic typology and language universals. Moreover the conceptions of some of the linguistic notions (e.g. “word” “subject” and “(im)perfective”) touched upon in this work have theoretical implications. This book is intended for researchers instructors and students who are interested in language comparison and linguistic typology in general and/or in the comparison of Chinese and English in particular. It can be used both as a reference and as a textbook.
A Layered Approach to Habitual Constructions
Jan 2026
Book
Editor(s):
Sune Gregersen and
Kees Hengeveld
Habitual constructions such as those based on English used to and Spanish soler are linguistic expressions denoting situations that typically occur. This volume proposes a novel approach to such expressions arguing that habituality is not a unified semantic category but rather a family of related meanings which differ in their scopal position within the clause. The volume contains a detailed account of habitual meaning from the perspective of Functional Discourse Grammar as well as in-depth empirical studies of habitual constructions in ten languages: Coptic Plains Cree Dolgan Ancient Greek Kwaza Mandarin Portuguese Russian Slovak and Spanish. It will be of interest not just to specialists of these languages but to anyone working on habituality and other aspectual categories in the languages of the world.
Local Grammar Approaches to Speech Act Studies : Apology in contemporary spoken British English
Aug 2025
Book
Author(s):
Hang Su
This book brings together corpus linguistics and pragmatics by extending the emerging corpus analytic framework of local grammar to speech act research aiming to enrich the toolkit of corpus-based speech act studies. It outlines four directions in which local grammar can be useful for investigating speech acts namely a local grammar approach to annotating speech acts developing local grammars of speech acts identifying speech act constructions via the lens of local grammars and applying local grammars into contrastive speech act studies. These directions are illustrated with studies on apology in contemporary spoken British English which shows that local grammar can be an innovative approach to advance speech act studies and that such research has significant implications and applications. The book should be of interest to researchers and students in corpus linguistics pragmatics construction grammar and L2 speech act research and teaching.
Love, Sex, and the Sacred : A metaphor analysis of Hungarian folk songs
Jun 2025
Book
Author(s):
Veronika Szelid
Most Hungarian folksongs are about SEX – according to a widely accepted opinion of ethnographers. But what is SEX about? How is it connected to LOVE and what does THE SACRED have to do with these? <br xmlns="http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/"/>Drawing on Conceptual Metaphor Theory this book reveals the profound connections between the three concepts highlighting the spiritual roots of romantic love in a premodern religious context. Within this framework we can gain a better understanding of the true role of women in traditional religious societies – a role often misunderstood or perhaps misjudged by contemporary perspectives as unjust oppressed exploited and pathetic. However such perspectives might overlook valuable lessons that could still resonate today.<br/>The volume cuts across linguistics philosophy cultural anthropology and religious studies by offering a compelling look at how metaphors in folk poetry serve as a window into a worldview where the concept of LOVE and SEXUALITY transcend the physical boundaries of life.
Linguistic Insecurities and Authorities : 19th- and 21st-century language commentary on French
Apr 2025
Book
Author(s):
Emma Humphries
This book offers two new perspectives on language attitudes and ideologies. First it compares language commentary from two thus far relatively neglected time periods: the 19th and 21st centuries. Second it draws on non-traditional dialogic sources to explore not only the well-studied “expert” views on language but also the perspectives of the “audience” engaging with these texts. Using France and the French language as its case study the book explores the areas of stability and change in questions of linguistic authority insecurity and correctness. It sheds new light on the evolution of the long-established genre of language commentary and deepens our understanding of the language attitudes and ideologies that shape how language is viewed discussed and judged. This book will appeal to linguists interested in language attitudes and ideologies in both historical and contemporary contexts.
Lectures on Language Theory 1942–1943
Dec 2024
Book
Author(s):
Louis Hjelmslev
Editor(s):
Lorenzo Cigana
The present book is the English translation of Louis Hjelmslev’s lectures on glossematics the theory of language developed in the forties by him and Hans Jørgen Uldall and taught at the University of Copenhagen in 1942-43 thoroughly taken down in shorthand by his student Harry Wett Frederiksen. The document unpublished so far is one-of-a-kind in its pedagogical dimension as it aims to introduce students and now readers to the glossematician’s workshop informally discussing its theoretical framework the operations employed in description and the reasons why such operations were devised via a concrete analysis of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy-tale “The Sweethearts”. Overall the document offers a unique glimpse into the machinery of one of the most epistemologically aware and rigorous theories of language developed in the 20th century.
Linguistic, Literary, and Cultural Diversity in a Global Perspective
Sept 2024
Book
Editor(s):
Adams Bodomo and
Carola Koblitz
Linguistic Literary and Cultural Diversity in a Global Perspective is a captivating collection of research articles. This volume explores the intricate connections between language culture and identity across the globe.
An agenda-setting introduction by the editors and essays by Liliana Sikorska and Shin-ichi Morimoto establish the scope and stakes of the book as a whole. Chapters by Eri Ohashi Ruth Karachi Benson Oji Liliane Hodieb Zheng Yang Zhifang Li and Wanwarang Softic investigate cultural diversity in film. Chapters by Mai Hussein Wang Chutong and Darja Zorc Maver offer insights into the linguistic and literary creativity of diasporic and immigrant communities and a new global context for German literature is developed in chapters by Ekaterina Riabykh Muharrem Kaplan and Tomás Espino Barrera.
Appealing to scholars researchers and students this interdisciplinary work sheds light on the complexities of our globalized world. Linguistic Literary and Cultural Diversity in a Global Perspective is a valuable addition to the field offering fresh perspectives on language culture and identity.
An agenda-setting introduction by the editors and essays by Liliana Sikorska and Shin-ichi Morimoto establish the scope and stakes of the book as a whole. Chapters by Eri Ohashi Ruth Karachi Benson Oji Liliane Hodieb Zheng Yang Zhifang Li and Wanwarang Softic investigate cultural diversity in film. Chapters by Mai Hussein Wang Chutong and Darja Zorc Maver offer insights into the linguistic and literary creativity of diasporic and immigrant communities and a new global context for German literature is developed in chapters by Ekaterina Riabykh Muharrem Kaplan and Tomás Espino Barrera.
Appealing to scholars researchers and students this interdisciplinary work sheds light on the complexities of our globalized world. Linguistic Literary and Cultural Diversity in a Global Perspective is a valuable addition to the field offering fresh perspectives on language culture and identity.
Language Acquisition in Romance Languages
Aug 2024
Book
Editor(s):
Vicenç Torrens
The research presented in this volume covers first language acquisition second language acquisition language heritage and language impairment. Papers in this collection use a variety of experimental methods such as eye-tracking elicitation tasks production tasks administered off-line and untimed transcriptions of spontaneous speech production elicitation Truth Value Judgement tasks standardized tests and multiple choice tasks. The studies included in this book try to cover most of the methods used in first and second language acquisition in typical and atypical populations. This book will be useful for linguists speech therapists and psycholinguists working on first second and impaired language acquisition.
Latin Literatures of Medieval and Early Modern Times in Europe and Beyond : A millennium heritage
Jul 2024
Book
Editor(s):
Francesco Stella,
Lucie Doležalová and
Danuta Shanzer
The textual heritage of Medieval Latin is one of the greatest reservoirs of human culture. Repertories list more than 16000 authors from about 20 modern countries. Until now there has been no introduction to this world in its full geographical extension. Forty contributors fill this gap by adopting a new perspective making available to specialists (but also to the interested public) new materials and insights. The project presents an overview of Medieval (and post-medieval) Latin Literatures as a global phenomenon including both Europe and extra-European regions. It serves as an introduction to medieval Latin's complex and multi-layered culture whose attraction has been underestimated until now. Traditional overviews mostly flatten specificities yet in many countries medieval Latin literature is still studied with reference to the local history. Thus the first section presents 20 regional surveys including chapters on authors and works of Latin Literature in Eastern Central and Northern Europe Africa the Middle East Asia and the Americas. Subsequent chapters highlight shared patterns of circulation adaptation and exchange and underline the appeal of medieval intermediality as evidenced in manuscripts maps scientific treatises and iconotexts and its performativity in narrations theatre sermons and music. The last section deals with literary “interfaces” that is motifs or characters that exemplify the double-sided or the long-term transformations of medieval Latin mythologemes in vernacular culture both early modern and modern such as the legends about King Arthur Faust and Hamlet.
Lifespan Acquisition and Language Change : Historical sociolinguistic perspectives
Apr 2024
Book
Editor(s):
Israel Sanz-Sánchez
This volume connects the latest research on language acquisition across the lifespan with the explanation of language change in specific sociohistorical settings. This conversation benefits from recent advances in two areas: on the one hand the study of how learners of various ages and in various sociolinguistic contexts acquire language variation; on the other historical sociolinguistics as the field that focuses on the study of historical patterns of language variation and change. The overarching rationale for this interdisciplinary dialogue is that all forms of language change start and spread as the result of individual acts of acquisition throughout the speakers’ lives. The thirteen chapters in this book are authored by an international group of both established and emerging scholars. They encompass theoretical overviews of specific research areas within the broader realm of the acquisition of language variation as well as case studies applying these theoretical advances to the exploration of language change in a wide range of sociohistorical contexts in the Americas Oceania and Asia. This volume will be of interest to students and researchers in the area of language acquisition language variation and language change especially those working on interdisciplinary and crosslinguistic connections among these areas.
Less Frequently Used Research Methodologies in Applied Linguistics
Jan 2024
Book
Editor(s):
A. Mehdi Riazi
Research methodology plays a pivotal role in generating new knowledge in any academic discipline. Applied Linguistics (AL) researchers use a variety of research methodologies to address different research problems and research questions given its interdisciplinary nature. Notwithstanding the plethora of research methodologies used by AL researchers there are some methodologies that are used less frequently. The aim of this volume is to introduce and discuss these less frequently used methodologies. Each methodology is discussed in two chapters a theoretical and a practical chapter. In the theoretical chapters the theoretical foundations methodological orientation ethical issues and critiques and responses are discussed. In the practical chapters a showcase study is presented and discussed including why the methodology was used how it was implemented the challenges the researchers faced and the insights they gained. The volume contributes to the current methodological discussion in AL and provides early-career and seasoned researchers with the necessary discussion about these methodological orientations. Future AL researchers may use these methodologies to investigate research questions in their areas of interest. In addition the volume can complement current methodological resources in postgraduate research methodology courses.
Language Change in the 20th Century : Exploring micro-diachronic evolutions in Romance languages
Jan 2024
Book
Editor(s):
Salvador Pons Bordería and
Shima Salameh Jiménez
Language Change in the 20th Century: Exploring micro-diachronic evolutions in Romance languages examines the distinctive features that set the study of the 20th century apart from preceding periods. With a primary focus on Romance languages including Spanish Italian French and Portuguese the book advocates for the adoption of innovative methodologies to enhance the nuanced retrieval of research data: the use of speaker’s attitudes questionnaires apparent time constructions and S-curves. Additionally new materials are addressed as diachronic data sources: mass-media recordings from radio and TV colloquial conversations and sociolinguistic corpora. Results focus on the evolution of discourse markers address terms as well as on the influence of specific processes such as colloquialization or external mechanisms on the language changes developed during this period. In sum the 20th century is presented in this book as a new strand in diachronic studies rather than another time span.
L3 Development After the Initial State
Oct 2023
Book
Editor(s):
Megan M. Brown-Bousfield,
Suzanne Flynn and
Éva Fernández-Berkes
To date the field of L3 acquisition research has had a heavy focus on the initial state of the L3 grammar. While this initial state research is critical to understanding L3 acquisition as a whole in order for an explanatory understanding of language acquisition in the multilingual mind the field needs to expand its scope beyond this area of focus. This volume brings together L3 acquisition and multilingualism researchers in order to discuss the state of the field and introduce new ideas related to the development of post-initial L3 knowledge and the relationship among languages in the multilingual mind. It includes contributions related to syntactic phonological and lexical development beyond the L3 initial state. The purpose of this volume is to expand the current academic discussions within this field by emphasizing the role of the developmental process in an L3 context with the hope of inspiring further research in this domain.
L2 Collaborative Writing in Diverse Learning Contexts
Aug 2023
Book
Editor(s):
Mimi Li and
Meixiu Zhang
This book is the first edited volume to compile up-to-date scholarship that discusses frontier knowledge on second language (L2) collaborative writing (CW) and highlights technology-mediated solutions to it. The volume consists of conceptual papers and empirical studies that explore theoretical methodological and pedagogical approaches to CW in face-to-face online and hybrid learning contexts. The ten chapters of the book are divided into three sections: (1) theoretical perspectives and a methodological review of CW; (2) empirical research addressing the processes products and effects pertaining to CW; (3) pedagogical aspects relevant to CW namely task design technology use and assessment. By examining the implementation of various CW tasks across modes genres and L2 learning settings this book re-evaluates the practices of CW and illustrates how diverse forms of CW can facilitate students’ L2 learning and writing development.
L2 Pragmatics in Action : Teachers, learners and the teaching-learning interaction process
Apr 2023
Book
Editor(s):
Alicia Martínez-Flor,
Ariadna Sánchez-Hernández and
Júlia Barón
This is the first edited volume dedicated to both teachers and learners of second/foreign language (L2) pragmatics. It comprises a collection of studies that explore how teachers background and practices and individual learners differences contribute to the teaching and learning of L2 pragmatics. Also included are chapters that present pedagogical approaches that bring teachers and learners together in action in the classroom setting. Written by an international team of experts the volume examines the most relevant topics on instructional pragmatics in a variety of language contexts including Brazil China Germany Japan Spain the United States and Vietnam. This global perspective represents a key contribution in the current increasingly multilingual and multicultural society. Taken together the findings presented have diverse research and pedagogical implications and provide new directions to explore L2 pragmatic competence. This innovative book will be a valuable resource for researchers and graduate students as well as for language teachers and course developers.
Language and Characterisation in Television Series : A corpus-informed approach to the construction of social identity in the media
Mar 2023
Book
Author(s):
Monika Bednarek
This book explores how language is used to create characters in fictional television series. To do so it draws on multiple case studies from the United States and Australia. Brought together in this book for the first time these case studies constitute more than the sum of their parts. They highlight different aspects of televisual characterisation and showcase the use of different data methods and approaches in its analysis. Uniquely the book takes a mixed-method approach and will thus not only appeal to corpus linguists but also researchers in sociolinguistics stylistics and pragmatics. All corpus linguistic techniques are clearly introduced and explained and the book is thus accessible to both experienced researchers as well as novice researchers and students. It will be essential reading in linguistics literature stylistics and media/television studies.
A Life with Poetry : The development of poetic literacy
Feb 2023
Book
Author(s):
Joan Peskin and
David I. Hanauer
This volume examines the development of poetic literacy including the specific processes used by expert poetry readers and professional poets. In doing so it provides a much needed synthesis of research findings across diverse domains such as human development the scientific study of literature cognitive psychology neuroscience psycholinguistics and education. An important feature of the book is its exploration of the new and relatively unexplored area of research on the development of poetic writing. Both theoretical and practical the volume will be of interest to researchers as well as educators. The detailed explication of expert knowledge and the trajectory through which relative novices become relative experts should allow educators to make evidence-based decisions. Valuable guidelines for developmentally-appropriate practice in pedagogical settings are provided to better optimize learning and inspire students from preschool to graduate school and beyond.