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New Frontiers and Connections in Second Language Acquisition : Selected Proceedings of the 17th Generative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition (GASLA-17) Conference
Apr 2026
Book
This volume contains a representative sample of studies presented at the 17th meeting of the Generative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition conference (GASLA-17). The chapters explore new frontiers and make connections between second language acquisition bilingualism psycholinguistic methods and computational methods. The chapters ask theoretically informed questions about the underlying grammars of language learners and bilinguals use experimental methods to arrive at answers to those questions and consider the value of using ‘big data’ to address questions in generative second language acquisition. This volume is intended for scholars and students of generative second language acquisition and related fields. It builds on prior literature by addressing the acquisition of a variety of phenomena (in syntax semantics pragmatics and phonology) by a variety of populations and using a variety of data collection methods.
Discourses of War and Peace : 21st century perspectives
Apr 2026
Book
The goal of this volume is to explore and make sense of the overall scope implications and consequences of shifting discourses of war peace and neutrality across time and space in relation to conflict-ridden geopolitical environments characterized by power struggles political polarizations divergent goal settings and ideological confrontations (from the Russo-Japanese war 1904–1905 to Russia’s war against Ukraine 2022-present). Through a broad range of cutting-edge case studies (Finland Germany India Japan Poland Romania Russia/Soviet Union/Russian Federation Slovakia Sweden The Netherlands Ukraine USA) the authors go beyond mainstream studies on war and peace by challenging existing paradigms and undergoing in-depth scrutiny of discourse argumentation strategies historical metanarratives reflective storytelling and visual mediatization. Readers are called upon to reflect on evaluate and discuss issues raised by questions like the following: To what extent are dogmatic and power-based discourse practices consequential in the evolution of political language and the language of international diplomacy regarding processes of war peace and neutrality? In what ways have the mainstream and alternative news media changed the war reporting style the audience-oriented verbal and visual communication strategies and the emotion-triggering narratives?Reaching beyond the boundaries of pragmatics and discourse analysis this book should be a valuable resource for researchers and practitioners of rhetoric argumentation media studies history social and political sciences.
Practising Stylistics : Essays in Honour of Paul Simpson
Apr 2026
Book
Practising Stylistics marks the career of Professor Paul Simpson a leading figure in the discipline of stylistics and one who embodies the practical and rigorous linguistic analysis of literary works and social discourse. A prominent figure in the Poetics and Linguistics Association (PALA) since its earliest days and Baines Professor of English Language at the University of Liverpool Simpson has been a leading light and a steady hand on the stylistics tiller across his career. In this volume his friends colleagues co-authors and former students offer a series of essays that speak to the range and importance of Simpson’s influence.In its contribution and design this book reflects the artisanal ethos of stylistics itself. Each contribution includes a detailed illustrative example of stylistics practice with argument and method open to examination replication and constructive critical discussion. In this volume full-length stylistics essays are interspersed with shorter ‘vignettes’ that demonstrate practical applications of stylistics which are anchored by strong theoretical awareness. As such each chapter is representative of the rigorous stylistic analysis championed by Simpson.Demonstrating the value of stylistic approaches to literary criticism and discourse analysis by illustrating its workings is the most accessible way of reaffirming the discipline and so this book will likely be a key resource for scholars seeking the sort of exemplary stylistic practice inspired by Paul Simpson.
Silent Instruments : Syntax, semantics, and acquisition of the instrumental role in Italian
Mar 2026
Book
This book offers the first systematic investigation of the instrumental role across syntax semantics and language acquisition. Focusing primarily on Italian within a comparative perspective the book addresses a long-standing puzzle: why Instruments can be syntactically omitted even when they remain semantically present.Combining theoretical analysis with experimental evidence corpus data and innovative methodologies the study redefines the status of Instruments with respect to the argument-adjunct distinction and introduces a new principled account of their syntactic omission based on semantic recoverability. It proposes a refined typology of Instruments grounded in verb meaning and contextual factors and tests its predictions through behavioral experiments and large-scale corpus analyses.The book also breaks new ground in acquisition research presenting the first experimental investigation of how Italian-speaking children acquire Instruments. The results reveal a striking dissociation between early syntactic mastery and the slower development of Instrument semantic recoverability shedding new light on the acquisition of syntactically optional elements.By integrating syntax semantics and acquisition Silent Instruments provides a robust and empirically grounded framework that is readily applicable to cross-linguistic research and to other phenomena at the syntax-semantics interface. It will be of interest to linguists working on argument structure optionality language acquisition and experimental and corpus-based approaches to grammar.
Quantitative Methods in Multilingual Acquisition and Processing
Mar 2026
Book
The growing fields of language acquisition and processing have made great strides in understanding how individuals learn and use more than one language across various stages of life in diverse contexts. This is partly due to the methodological innovations that have been developed and refined in recent years. This volume discusses methodologies used in first second and bi/multilingual language acquisition and processing with practical guidance on how to employ the different methodologies and accompanying possible statistical analyses. The chapters in this volume deal with the ever-changing field of language acquisition and processing as examined by an array of offline behavioural measures online reaction methods and physiological measures. This volume focuses on connecting the practical elements of key methodologies to the theoretical questions they are used to answer guiding the reader through best practices in examining different linguistic questions.
Register and Discourse through the Lens of Corpus Linguistics
Mar 2026
Book
Register and Discourse through the Lens of Corpus Linguistics offers a rigorous and engaging exploration of two of the field’s most dynamic areas. Drawing on key frameworks – including Construction Grammar Corpus-Assisted Discourse Studies Speech Act Theory and Local Grammar – the volume showcases how qualitative and quantitative corpus-driven methods illuminate the interplay between linguistic form communicative function and contextual embedding. Across eleven chapters contributors examine a breadth of linguistic features from swearing syntactic fragments prenominal modification nonstandard forms and phraseology to interruption and humour expressive acts epistemic presupposition expertise and predictive stance. The studies span diverse settings – teen talk Reddit forums news media historical newspapers workplace interaction political debate and economic discourse – and incorporate synchronic and diachronic perspectives as well as cross-linguistic comparisons. Collectively the chapters demonstrate how register and discourse intersect as mutually informing dimensions of language use enriching established research traditions and offering practical models for future inquiry. Their insights extend beyond corpus linguistics resonating with scholarship in sociolinguistics pragmatics World Englishes and applied linguistics.
Adverbs and Particles at the Form-Meaning Interface
Mar 2026
Book
Adverbs and Particles at the Form-Meaning Interface offers a comprehensive investigation of two word classes that play a crucial role at the interfaces and have posed challenges for linguistic theory. Drawing on a broad typological range including Germanic Romance Basque and Heritage Greek this volume sheds new light on the role of adverbs and particles at the interfaces between morphology syntax semantics and pragmatics from both a synchronic and diachronic perspective. Contributions from both established and emerging scholars offer original theoretical methodological and empirical research addressing diverse topics such as the internal structure of adverbs external syntax grammaticalization from adverbs to particles and their specific role in discourse. This volume will be highly relevant to theoretical and historical linguists particularly those interested in the interaction of form and meaning.
The Loss of Primordial Language and the Future of National Languages
Mar 2026
Book
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.
The New Arabic Lexicon and its Words : Root-based and templatic morphosyntax
Mar 2026
Book
Root syntax with roots as primitive lexical units is an influential theme in building the lexicon in linguistic theory typically in Distributed Morphology and the generative model of minimal computation. Implementing important fragments of the Arabic lexicon the book presents a comprehensive view of word formation and argument structure providing robust evidence that favors root-based rather than stem-based derivations of words. Tested on Arabic a language wearing DM ‘on its sleeve’ the DM model gains substantial support and refinement. Significant templatic affixes turn out to be roots. Valency changing causatives anti-causatives reflexives or nominalizations implicate root complexity not category change. Psych perception and cognition eventuality classes are born as root subtypes not ‘verb’ classes. Category changing deverbalizations deadjectivations or denominalizations are supplemented by complex root derivations. Melodic templates operate ‘templatization’ (e.g. with adjectives) or act as functional templates for Voice and Aspect (e.g. with passives) or gradation (with synthetic comparatives) after category typing. The book is of interest to generative and comparative linguists cognitivists typologists lexicographers and students teachers and researchers of Arabic or Semitic
60 Years of Applied Linguistics : Toward more engaged research
Mar 2026
Book
For sixty years applied linguistics has stood at the crossroads of language and society by meeting real-world needs. 60 Years of Applied Linguistics: Toward more engaged research offers a compelling reflection on the field’s evolution while calling for a renewed commitment to socially responsive ethically grounded scholarship. Inspired by the momentum of the 2023 AILA World Congress in France this collective volume brings together leading international applied linguists to examine how applied linguistics has transformed in response to shifting political landscapes technological change and global challenges. From different perspectives the contributors explore how research has both shaped—and been shaped by—the world we live in. Looking ahead the book advocates for research that reaches beyond academic borders engaging with communities policymakers and practitioners to confront contemporary issues. This book is an essential reference for scholars students and practitioners. It celebrates a rich intellectual legacy while charting bold new directions.
Pardon my French? : Dutch-French language contact in the Netherlands (1500-1900)
Mar 2026
Book
This book offers the first comprehensive analysis of the Dutch–French contact situation in the Early and Late Modern period when the Dutch language and culture supposedly underwent frenchification in various spheres of life. Bringing together empirical approaches based on a wide range of datasets this volume not only delves deeply into an intriguing case study in historical multilingualism and language contact but also offers detailed theoretical and methodological background information on how to analyse such an enduring contact situation from a historical-sociolinguistic perspective. The Dutch–French case is approached from three interrelated angles focusing on the Netherlands between 1500 and 1900: contact-induced change in historical Dutch language choice and language shift in the private and the public domain and language-ideological change.
Null or Nothing : Zero elements in Romance syntax and morphology
Feb 2026
Book
Zero elements are used by several theories in morphology and syntax as analytical tool but the question of whether phonologically empty elements should be structurally present or not has been a controversial issue from the very beginning. In addition to analyses that work with zero there are also a whole series of works that explicitly reject a description with zero or allow them only under restricted circumstances. This volume aims at getting a more complete picture of zero elements as a theoretic construct its empirical necessity and its nature in different components of grammar by focusing on Romance languages. The volume presents multi-facetted viewpoints and methodologies such as formal theoretic and data-based ones addressing researchers advanced students and everyone interested in linguistics. Furthermore this volume deals with various Romance languages and varieties such as Catalan (Old and Modern) French Italian and Sicilian (Brazilian and European) Portuguese and Spanish.
Intralingual Translation : Beyond language and text
Feb 2026
Book
Intralingual Translation: Beyond language and text offers an innovative wide-ranging exploration of translation within the same language bringing together leading international scholars from diverse linguistic and disciplinary backgrounds. Spanning theoretical reflections empirical studies and historical analyses the volume addresses the rich spectrum of intralingual practices from plain language and accessibility adaptations to diachronic rewritings of historical texts. The first section investigates various aspects of the “Intralingual Sphere” and its connections to other modes of translation. The second part explores the rapidly developing field of accessibility and simplification including Easy Language plain language and graded readers. The book concludes with in-depth studies of diachronic translation across different historical layers of the French Italian and Latin languages. Originating in an international workshop these contributions highlight intralingual translation as a multi-faceted and socially situated activity offering new insights into its theoretical boundaries practical challenges and cultural significance.
A (Re)turn to the Source Text
Feb 2026
Book
The source text is an unescapable part of any translation or translation process. Without source text no translation. Yet it is only recently that scholars in the field of translation studies have begun exploring theorizing and conceptualizing the source text in a more systematic fashion. The present volume builds on and expands this work exposing how source texts are never merely given but always constructed by translators and used for various purposes. The seven case studies by researchers working in translation studies or at the intersection of translation studies and other disciplines explore the role and function of the source text in journalistic translation pseudotranslation indirect translation children’s literature and biblical translation. The authors ask questions such as: How do translators turn specific texts into source texts? How do translators conceptualize their originals? How do source texts of the ‘same’ work change over time?
Multilingual Corpus Research : Advances and challenges
Feb 2026
Book
Multilingual corpora have been used in cross-linguistic research for 30 years. New technologies have dramatically changed the processes of compilation and exploitation of tailor-made corpora for linguistic research. The studies included in this volume showcase current cross-linguistic research utilising parallel comparable and novel types of corpora beyond this traditional two-fold distinction. The first part of the volume draws on specialised comparable corpora of newspaper opinion articles social media texts and economic discourse. Parallel corpora are the focus of the second part and are used to shed light on diverse areas such as translation history bilingual phraseology extraction and lexico-grammatical contrastive analysis. Recently the emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has implied a dramatic shift in corpus-based cross-linguistic research. This book offers valuable insights for scholars in contrastive linguistics and translation studies delineating potential uses of parallel and comparable corpora in Machine Translation automated translation quality assessment post-editing and other AI-enhanced applications.
Cross-linguistic Register Variation
Feb 2026
Book
A current trend in contrastive corpus linguistics is to take register variation as a point of departure for identifying similarities and differences across languages. This volume looks back at central previous contributions in this area and adds to our store of knowledge in the form of nine studies comparing English to five other languages in a wide variety of registers representing written spoken and written-to-be-spoken modes of communication. The volume starts with a semi-systematic review of previous research on corpus-based register variation comparing English with the other languages represented in the volume’s studies which are Dutch French German Norwegian and Spanish. In the subsequent nine chapters a variety of topics are explored ranging from verb and noun phrases to adverbials and other lexico-grammatical constructions. This book will be of interest to scholars experts and novices in the fields of contrastive corpus linguistics register studies and translation studies.
Progress in Colour Studies : Colour Expression and Cognition
Feb 2026
Book
This volume presents recent research in colour studies with a particular focus on language offering both continuity and innovation within the field. All chapters are developed from papers first presented at the Progress in Colour Studies 2022 (PICS2022) conference held at Tallinn University Estonia. Building on the results of earlier PICS meetings and publications this book continues the series’ tradition of offering fresh perspectives on colour across languages and cultures.The contributions examine colour in linguistic contexts ranging from semantics and pragmatics to translation lexicography and discourse employing approaches such as corpus-based analysis and experimental methods. Some chapters formulate broad discussions on colour and its role in language and culture while others present in-depth studies of single colour terms such those denoting red green grey orange or beige. The volume’s international scope is reflected in the diversity of languages represented.The book opens with an editorial preface situating the contributions within the broader field. It also includes a comprehensive subject index and numerous illustrations. Taken together these studies make the volume an essential resource for scholars interested in the linguistic dimensions of colour and their broader cognitive and cultural implications.
The Development of the Chinese Cleft Construction : A diachronic constructional approach
Feb 2026
Book
This book explores the development of the Chinese cleft construction through the lens of Diachronic Construction Grammar. Focusing on shi as an invariant copula it examines the VP de cleft the V de O cleft and the bare shi cleft showing how each signals contrastive and specificational meaning. Tracing their origins from the copular construction in Middle Chinese the study reveals distinct developmental paths and semantic-pragmatic uses for each cleft type. Offering the first diachronic constructional analysis of Chinese cleft sentences it sheds light on the evolution of focus structures the expansion of constructional networks and the typology of focus devices across languages making a key contribution to historical linguistics and Chinese grammar research.
Crises We Live By : A transdisciplinary study of crisis and its metaphors in their cultural context
Feb 2026
Book
After an original foreword from Andreas Musolff setting the stage of the book Crises We Live By offers a series of case studies that highlight different ways of conceptualizing and speaking about crisis above all metaphorically. Its title echoes Lakoff and Johnson’s famous Metaphors We Live By (1980) and speaks to the unprecedented awareness of the theme of crisis and its conceptualization that has emerged in contemporary media and discourse. The book makes an innovative contribution to crisis studies and to Cognitive Metaphor Theory (CMT) by extending its historical reach back to antiquity and by adopting a transdisciplinary approach that takes into account the specific cultural context and framing of each metaphor for crisis.
At the Crossroads of Historical and Cognitive Linguistics
Jan 2026
Book
This volume explores the synergy between historical and cognitive linguistics demonstrating how the two can jointly shed light on patterns of language change. Focusing on figurative language particularly metaphor and metonymy it features a range of case studies that zoom in on the emergence and evolution of meaning across time with chapters addressing among other topics diachronic changes in the semantics of nouns (e.g. for emotions) and speech act verbs. Beyond lexical and grammatical change the volume engages with broader issues such as belief systems the conceptualization of the future intersubjectification etymology and prototype theory. The contributors employ a variety of theoretical and methodological frameworks including diachronic morphology cultural history and both exploratory and confirmatory statistics. Together these studies exemplify the potential of interdisciplinary approaches and invite further dialogue on the tools and theories suited to tracing the evolution of figurative thought and language over time.
Thinking and Speaking About Time : A cognitive linguistic approach
Jan 2026
Book
The last two decades have seen a series of publications focused on time. So why another book? It now appears that a kairos moment has arrived to reconsider from a more holistic point of view the manifold ways in which we think about time and talk about it. The book is divided into four major parts: Fundamental issues; Conceptualization of temporality across languages and cultures; Metaphor metonymy and time conceptualization; and Time and grammar. Following the two chapters that prefigure the main topics of the volume we move from chapters dealing with the cultural embeddedness of our conceptualizations of time to those discussing the instrumental role of figurativity in the conceptualization of time finishing with a series of chapters focusing on a range of phenomena revolving around the grammatical reflexes of temporality.
Speaking of Writing Romani : Language attitudes, text editing, and variability
Jan 2026
Book
As a traditionally oral language spoken in areas with a literacy-based culture Romani provides a unique case for the study of orality and literacy. In a mixed-methods approach this work investigates attitudes of Romani speakers towards the modalities their communicative functions and use and editing behaviour in writing texts. Importantly it allows a direct comparison of spoken and written language use of individuals. Thus while Romani writing has been studied before this book adds unique data and aspects of metalinguistic knowledge to the discussion. Moreover broadening the empirical coverage of smaller languages within experimental research it comprises the first study on implicit attitudes towards the Romani language. This makes it possible for insights from minority languages to bear on theories of orality and literacy. Beyond Romani linguistics the book will appeal to researchers interested in minority language research variability language attitudes and frameworks of spoken and written language.
New Insights into Theoretical Syntax from Asian Languages : Studies in honor of C.-T. James Huang
Jan 2026
Book
This book brings together some of the most prominent linguists working in the field of East and Southeast Asian syntax to create a special collection of papers which highlight new developments in the analysis of the syntax of Chinese Japanese Korean Vietnamese and other Southeast Asian languages. Generative syntactic theory has regularly been influenced by discoveries made in Asian languages and the present volume connects a broad range of striking patterns found in Asian languages with Minimalist syntactic theory and provides arguments for fresh approaches to a variety of fundamental problems and puzzles within formal syntax. The volume has also been created as a tribute to Professor C.-T. James Huang one of the most influential of generative linguists active in the study of Chinese and other Asian languages.
Literature as Experience-Inviting Discourse
Jan 2026
Book
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
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
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.
Digital and Internet-Based Research Methods in Applied Linguistics
Jan 2026
Book
This edited volume examines topics related to digital and internet-based research methods in the interdisciplinary field of applied linguistics. The book brings together internationally recognized experts with diverse interests from across the field. Covered are key approaches methods tools and sites that are commonly leveraged when performing research that involves digital tools or online spaces. This text is intended to be introductory and to be accessible to graduate students and faculty who may be new to a given area. As such each chapter introduces readers to the focal topic explains frequently asked research questions outlines common procedures showcases example studies and discusses key ethical considerations. The goal is for readers to walk away with an advanced understanding of how to conduct different types of research as well as develop their own ideas for future directions.
This is the Thing : A cognitive/typological investigation into the concept of `thinghood'
Jan 2026
Book
This monograph investigates for the first time words like ‘thing’ of maximal semantic generality across languages. Not all languages have exact equivalents of English ‘thing’ – in some for instance the nearest equivalent is an interrogative stem (‘what?’). Few languages extend their ‘thing’ words into indefinite ‘something’ ‘anything’ ‘nothing’ as in English. As regards Indo-European languages Buck (1988) points out that such words typically derive from a more abstract source than that of simple material objects. In the case of ‘thing’ the earliest source usually given is the Germanic word for a ‘judicial assembly’. How does such a word develop the most general sense of ‘thing’ today? Do all languages follow this kind of pattern? These questions lead into an investigation of the concept of ‘thing’ in a wide range of contexts and in a wide variety of languages involving both typological and cognitive aspects. The results have sometimes been unexpected. Buck C. D. 1988. A Dictionary of Selected Synonyms in the Principal Indo -European Languages. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Emancipatory Pragmatics : Innovative approaches to pragmatics incorporating the concept of “ba”
Dec 2025
Book
Emancipatory Pragmatics represents a unique contribution to the field of pragmatics. Most research in the field has focused on English and other Western languages but the study of Japanese and other non-Western languages as is done in this volume has led to a broader understanding of language use. Here thirteen articles each break new ground by discussing the application of ba theory to pragmatics research. Ba and basho which are Japanese terms often translated as “field” or “context” are central to expanding the theory of pragmatics to explain features not only of non-Western languages but of all languages. By presenting an introduction to the perspective of Emancipatory Pragmatics and discussing ba theory in detail it becomes obvious that this is an innovative approach to questions relevant for the study of all languages. Thus it is useful both for students new to the field as well as for seasoned researchers.
This ebook is Open Access under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.
Morphology by Serial Optimization
Nov 2025
Book
Harmonic Serialism is a derivational version of Optimality Theory that has widely been pursued for phonology and syntax but so far much less for morphology. The harmonic serialist approach to inflectional morphology underlying the contributions to the present volume is virtually unique in that it combines from the perspective of the minimalist program a cyclic approach to morphological structure-building with an optimality-theoretic approach to optimization; in a general taxonomy of morphological theories it qualifies as lexical realizational Merge-based and pre-syntactic.<br/>Following a comprehensive introduction to the new theory the book brings together eight case studies from typologically different languages (like Potawatomi Itelmen Acoma Modern Greek Lithuanian Urarina Irarutu and Hill Mari) that address a number of morphological phenomena which can all be shown to empirically support a cyclic optimality-theoretic approach (among them extended exponence disjunctive blocking impoverishment deponency portmanteau marking and morphological movement). The book will be of use to all scholars and students interested in morphological theory.
Varieties of German in Contact Settings : Studies in honor of William D. Keel
Nov 2025
Book
This volume pays homage to the legacy of William D. Keel and the significant impact of his research on German in contact settings from myriad perspectives and traditions. It includes structural and sociolinguistic studies focusing on varieties of German spoken throughout the world including Midwestern varieties of Low German Pennsylvania Dutch Texas German Zarzer German in Slove-nia and the use of different varieties of Standard German in the second language classroom. The contributions span multiple domains of linguistic inquiry such as phonology morphosyntax syntax and second language acquisition. Collectively they contribute to ongoing research on contact varie-ties of Germanic language and how they impact sociolinguistic and generative/theoretical theory as well as pedagogical choices involving varieties of German in instructed second language acquisition. The contributions thus are a fitting tribute to William D. Keel’s far-reaching legacy in research on bilingualism and in particular German-Sprachinseln throughout the world.
Transmedia in Translation and Transculturation
Nov 2025
Book
A prominent keyword of the 21st century humanities the concept of transmedia describes in essence an age-old phenomenon: texts tend to spread in a fragmented fashion in various media and be appropriated and further developed by multiple agents. However the concept of transmedia and the practices it describes have become especially foregrounded with the rise of the new digital technologies and the spread of globalization. <br xmlns="http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/"/>Transmedial practices more often than not span across languages and cultures; nevertheless the ways in which transmediality intersects with translation is an aspect that has so far received limited attention in the respective academic fields. <br/>The aim of this volume is to introduce the concept of transmedia to translation studies and to highlight the centrality of translation processes in transmedial phenomena. Both in its narrower sense as interlingual transfer and in its broader sense as intersemiotic transposition translation is of paramount importance in the study of transmedia.
Applying Corpora in Teaching and Learning Romance Languages
Nov 2025
Book
Applying Corpora in Teaching and Learning Romance Languages is the first major volume dedicated to the use of corpora in teaching and learning Romance languages. Covering four Mediterranean Romance languages – French Italian Spanish and Catalan – the volume provides a thematically structured exploration of applying corpora with sections on spoken language writing and translation data-driven learning acquisition and classroom practice. The chapters making up the volume engage critically with both historical issues and contemporary methodologies serving to illustrate how corpora can enhance language teaching and student engagement. With its broad scope and range of insightful research findings this volume lays the foundations for further research in applying corpus linguistics to Romance languages. A must-read for researchers and teachers wishing to engage with corpus use in the teaching and learning of Romance languages.
The Ziggurat of Grammar : In honor of Ur Shlonsky
Nov 2025
Book
What is the extent to which various grammatical levels – from features through subjecthood through cleft layers – reuse and reemploy certain structure-building operations? In this volume organized in terms of successively expanding domains leading contributors report research into the complex edifice of grammatical structure of human language that one might liken to the terraced layers of a ziggurat. Following the heuristics of reverse-engineering the chapters in this collection draw on theoretical and experimental analyses from Taqbaylit Berber to the sign language Cena from the Romance language family to the Semitic family in a kind to ‘reverse-architecture’ effort to understand the modes that compose multiple planes of morphosyntax. The volume presented to honor the work and influence of Ur Shlonsky within linguistics is aimed at a readership accessible to advanced undergraduates as well as specialists placed at distinct vantage points.
This ebook is Open Access under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license.
The Diachrony of Word Class Peripheries
Nov 2025
Book
Word classes of a language are usually not homogeneous groups of lexemes that share the same morphological and syntactic properties completely. Rather lexemes are usually grouped together that have some basic commonalities but may differ in detail e.g. regarding their inflectional behaviour. In many cases one can identify within a word class a large number of lexemes that conform to a certain morphological or syntactic pattern (often referred to as “core members”) whilst there is only a comparatively small number of deviants (“peripheral members”). Examples abound: borrowings (in several word classes) may differ grammatically from native words some complex verbs evade certain syntactic slots (such as verb-second position in German) mass and proper nouns differ grammatically from (other) nouns and so on. In this volume we focus on the diachrony of such phenomena. We consider that the study of change and stability can be particularly helpful in furthering our understanding of the diversity within word classes concerning for example the motivation for divergent grammatical properties.
This ebook is Open Access under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.
Variation in Language Acquisition : Unity in diversity
Nov 2025
Book
This volume resulting from the fifth edition of the conference series Variation in Language Acquisition (ViLA) brings together research at the intersection of language acquisition and sociolinguistics. Work within the ViLA tradition explores how learners—from preschoolers to adult second-language users— produce perceive and evaluate socially meaningful language variation. Divided in two main parts the contributions to this volume highlight a rich diversity of linguistic settings methodological approaches and learner profiles. Where Part I focuses on the acquisition of variation in children from age three to adolescence Part II shifts the focus to the role of linguistic input and exposure in the acquisition process. Both parts showcase a broad methodological spectrum from observational and experimental studies to qualitative and mixed-methods research. By deepening our understanding of the interplay between social context and linguistic development the chapters in this volume both consolidate and inspire the growing research field of developmental sociolinguistics.
Possibility and Necessity: Concepts and expressions of modality : Concepts and expressions of modality
Nov 2025
Book
Researchers in the fields of logic philosophy and linguistics have for many years been pondering over the elusive nature of modality and grappled with ways of capturing it. This book provides a broad overview of issues relevant to the study of modality and reflects the diversity of theoretical frameworks and the heterogeneity of linguistic phenomena included under the general heading of modality a concept which in one of its most frequent definitions corresponds to the fields of possibility and necessity. The key concepts dealt with are the structure of the semantic notion of modality and of modal subcategories force dynamics evidentiality mirativity modal auxiliaries and verbs modal uses of verbs and constructions (hedged performatives capacitive structures conditional constructions) and modal polyfunctionality across languages. Articles deal with observations taken from a variety of languages including Danish English French Italian Latin and Slovak. The wealth of data and the critical evaluation of existing analyses of modality will be of interest for researchers and graduate students alike.
Framing in Interaction : Pragmatic approaches to framing analysis
Oct 2025
Book
This volume invites its readers to rethink the linguistic basis for framing analysis by problematizing the existing foundation and presenting eight new pragmatically based framing analyses.<br xmlns="http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/"/>The book challenges the assumption that there is a unilateral one-to-one relationship between words and frames such that framing occurs when a language user is exposed to a word that activates a frame.<br/>Conversely it is assumed that framing emerges in social interaction through a complex interplay between the participants the semiotic resources employed the circumstances and the multiple frames of interaction. This assumption calls for the relationship between words and frames to be analyzed in pragmatics including in cross-fertilization with other disciplines such as discourse analysis interaction analysis sociolinguistics psycholinguistics and social psychology.<br/>The assumption is operationalized in eight different exemplary framing analyses. Each analysis has its own focus drawing on its own disciplines and utilizing its own concepts tools and methods.<br/>The results of the analyses are noteworthy and demonstrate how a pragmatic approach to framing analysis can enhance the validity and reliability of the analysis.
What makes a Figure : Rethinking figurativity
Oct 2025
Book
This volume presents works seeking to re-think the very nature and scope of figurativity calling into attention some of the received tenets in accounts of figurativity both as a holistic category and for individual types and families of figures but also attempting to expand upon the current scope of figurative theorizing. The works presented here investigate a wider array of figures than the typically-studied tropes of metaphor irony and metonymy and they address broad issues such as figurativity writ large (what figurativity actually is and does including how embodied it is) multimodality contiguity of figurative forms and furthering our consideration of the ingredients of irony. It should appeal to any scholar interested in figurativity in all its expansive guises.
Technology and Instructed Second Language Acquisition : Connecting research and pedagogy
Oct 2025
Book
This book brings together a team of leading international scholars to explore the rich intersection of technology and second language (L2) learning and teaching. This innovative volume offers a unique blend of cutting-edge empirical research pedagogy-informed perspectives and practical applications for educators administrators and researchers alike. From digital games interactive fiction and chatbots to multimedia input online collaboration and vocabulary tools each chapter shows how technology can foster more effective equitable and purposeful L2 learning. Importantly the contributors avoid framing technology as a collection of isolated tools; instead they view technology as a set of adaptable resources for designing rich multimodal and socially-informed instructional practices. This forward-thinking comprehensive volume aims to empower L2 educators and researchers to leverage technology’s full potential in a way that resonates with pedagogy context and the growing need for justice equity and inclusion in L2 education; thereby preparing them to successfully navigate the ever-increasing array of technology for L2 teaching and learning.
The Making of Multi-Unit Turns : A spring-loaded door
Oct 2025
Book
The Making of Multi-Unit Turns is the first book-length treatment to comprehensively describe extended turns produced by a single speaker. It draws on multiparty everyday conversations in English using the methods of Conversation Analysis. It brings together the currently scattered literature on MUTs and goes on to expand our understanding of the ‘natural history’ of MUTs by showing how speakers and recipients deploy linguistic and embodied behaviours in intricate ways from the launch of an extended turn of talk to beyond the end of the MUT. The chapters report on the diverse ways in which speakers secure a second turn-constructional unit and show how grammatical prosodic gestural and postural resources as well as gaze direction are deployed to extend the speaker’s floor in a long MUT. Further investigating how speakers and their recipients transition out of the MUT and return to turn-by-turn talk and how recipients sometimes disrupt an extended MUT this book aims to provide a fresh understanding of the orderliness which underlies our everyday interactions.
The Grammar of Interaction : Epistemicity, information management and discourse in language use
Oct 2025
Book
This volume deals with the relations between grammar and interaction from different perspectives with the aim of unraveling the way in which a language — through the different forms of discourse from which it emerges — reflects certain social and community-based schemas; that is how language originates within the space shared by the speaker and the addressee(s). The first part (“Grammar and Interaction”) concerns how interaction may intervene in grammar; the second part (“The Grammar of Interaction”) approaches both notions and linguistic structures which are anchored in interaction while revolving around epistemicity evidentiality and modality. The third part (“Interaction as a Model for Discourse”) concerns how certain constructions emerge from interaction and are further used to model discourse. Finally the fourth and last part of the book (“Interaction as a Driver for Change”) focuses on how interaction may help to delimit linguistic categories.
Mathematical Modelling in Linguistics and Text Analysis : Theory and applications
Oct 2025
Book
This book is a panorama of contemporary quantitative linguistics as developed over decades. It highlights the main topics of QL: statistical laws of language taxonomy of linguistic phenomena authorial attribution quantitative analysis of syntax (e.g. dependency grammar) measurement of text difficulty and other phenomena at the intersection of linguistics literary studies semiotics and information science. It also reflects on the relevance of these time-honoured approaches in our new reality increasingly dominated by AI – both in terms of text material and methodology. Before our very eyes computers are achieving human-level linguistic competence. The era of LLMs and the growing dominance of machine-generated text is becoming reality. The scale of these changes initiated by the replacement of print with the digital universe is enormous. Today linguistics is closer than ever to mathematics and computer science and thus quantitatively-oriented linguists are particularly well-suited to address questions about the boundary between humans and machines in scientific research.
First Language Acquisition in Finno-Ugric Languages
Oct 2025
Book
This book is the first comprehensive state-of-the-art overview of the first language acquisition of four Finno-Ugric languages: Estonian Finnish Hungarian and North Saami. Ten chapters review research on phonological lexical and grammatical development bringing the research within the language family into one source enabling easy access to topics touching upon acquisition of the key linguistic domains cross-linguistic comparisons between the languages and discussion of the ways in which Finno-Ugric languages contribute to theory in the field of first language acquisition. The volume will appeal to students and scholars of language acquisition linguists psychologists clinicians and educational professionals.
Constructions in Contact 3 : Constructional schemas and patterns in language contact
Oct 2025
Book
Over the last decade Construction Grammar has become increasingly popular in the study of language contact and multilingualism. Indeed constructional approaches including Diasystematic Construction Grammar not only offer a useful theoretical framework for empirical studies but also provide a fresh look at fundamental questions in contact linguistics. This volume continues the series of works on Constructions in Contact (the first two volumes were published in 2018 and 2021). It presents new research on the constructionist modelling of language contact phenomena the impact of multilingualism on argument structure constructions and the role of phonological units in language contact. The volume thus combines classical areas of constructional research with innovative ones demonstrating the broad applicability of Construction Grammar for contact linguistics.
COVID-19 : Metaphor and metonymy across languages and cultures
Oct 2025
Book
The COVID-19 pandemic set off a maelstrom of social cultural and political changes—as well as some surprising linguistic ones. This volume explores these dramatic changes through the lens of Cognitive Linguistics analysing noteworthy examples of pandemic discourse to reveal correspondences and contrasts between different cultures’ conceptions of the illness and its aftermath. The contributions examine a variety of genres including newspaper articles storefront signs artistic creations personal interviews social media comments and political speeches. They look at communication in various domains—business media politics economics art and psychiatry. And they compare past and present showing how the modern pandemic both continued and interrupted previous patterns of discourse around illness and disease. These diverse analyses show how Cognitive Linguistics on the cutting edge of quantitative sociocultural and interdisciplinary turns in linguistics can be a powerful theoretical tool in uncovering parallels and variations in how different cultures communicate in times of crisis.
Footprints of Phrase Structure : Studies in syntax in honour of Tim Stowell
Oct 2025
Book
This volume presents a collection of state-of-the-art studies that illustrate recent advances in the understanding of human language grammar design and linguistic categories. The title of the volume aims at highlighting the mark that the work of Tim Stowell has had on the field of Linguistics since his dissertation Origins of Phrase Structure defended at the MIT in 1981. Stowell’s work established the principles that replaced individual phrase structure rules from previous generative models with general universal constraints setting off the articulation of formal grammars on a new journey. The papers gathered here demonstrate how that principled approach runs in the field today. The empirical evidence discussed in the papers comes from 15 different languages which makes the volume a point of reference for cross-linguistic analyses and testimony to the wealth of descriptive knowledge brought to the scientific community.<br xmlns="http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/"/>A wide array of linguistic generations contributed to this volume ranging from legendary ones who established the field as we’ve known it to some who have only recently received their doctorates. This plainly demonstrates the time spanning impact of Stowell’s work and the deep footprint he has left in the field and in our lives.
Handbook of Terminology : Volume 4. Terminology planning in Europe
Sept 2025
Book
This book provides an overview of the various methods adopted for terminology planning in the languages under examination. Collectively the authors attempt to establish an overall understanding of terminology planning in Europe starting from an examination of the organizations engaged in terminology planning in different European linguistic contexts. Each chapter focuses on a specific language or language landscape focusing on issues such as:<br xmlns="http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/"/>- the defining features of these terminology planning institutions including their size structure funding sources specialization public recognition publication methods and collaborations with other organizations;<br/>- the responsibilities and operational procedures for example as regards standardization description evaluation quantification of results dissemination and terminometry;<br/>- terminology planning versus general language planning;<br/>- the historical development of these institutions and the future prospects for terminology planning in each language or language landscape.<br/>The individual authors provide an independent overview of one language landscape. Overall the book tells a fascinating story about how each language handles terminology as an essential linguistic factor in everyday society.
English across Borders : A reflexive approach to anglophone migrants’ repertoires
Sept 2025
Book
This book presents an account of English in the communicative repertoires of anglophone West-Africans living in Southwestern Germany. Adopting an ethnographically grounded perspective it analyzes how participants perceive and utilize English as well as other linguistic resources at their disposal in an environment where linguistic competence is routinely under scrutiny. The book traces how linguistic practices participate in the construction of socially meaningful spaces and images of personhood and how discourse about language enables participants to position themselves in relation to these constructions. In the process notions of languages and varieties themselves are used in surprising and sometimes conflicting ways. While these are at odds with descriptive linguistic terminology the book takes them seriously as expressing local understandings of the relationship among ways of speaking and social positions. At the theoretical level the book advances a shift in World Englishes research towards a reflexive approach grounded in linguistic anthropological perspectives.
Handbook of Pragmatics : 28th Annual Installment
Sept 2025
Book
This encyclopaedia of one of the major fields of language studies is a continuously updated source of state-of-the-art information for anyone interested in language use. The IPrA Handbook of Pragmatics provides easy access – for scholars with widely divergent backgrounds but with convergent interests in the use and functioning of language – to the different topics traditions and methods which together make up the field of pragmatics broadly conceived as the cognitive social and cultural study of language and communication i.e. the science of language use.
The Handbook of Pragmatics is a unique reference work for researchers which has been expanded and updated continuously with annual installments since 1995.
Also available as Online Resource: https://benjamins.com/online/hop
The Handbook of Pragmatics is a unique reference work for researchers which has been expanded and updated continuously with annual installments since 1995.
Also available as Online Resource: https://benjamins.com/online/hop