Latest Content

• Tailoring language to social hierarchies 2025-12-19
  Abstract This paper presents a study examining the pragmatic strategies employed by Zeng Guofan in his renowned family letters to craft qici (启辞, ‘salutation’), as well as the potential relationship between social hierarchies and the specific wording used in these opening phrases. The study reveals that, across 1,449 letters containing salutations, Zeng Guofan deployed seven […]
• Constructed action in the narrative tasks of children and adults using Finnish Sign Language 2025-12-19
  Abstract This article describes the use of a specific type of enactment — constructed action (CA) — by children acquiring Finnish Sign Language (FinSL) and adults who use FinSL as their first language. Constructed action was investigated from the recordings of two narrative tasks performed by the children and the adults. In the tasks, the […]
• L’expression tu sais dans la gestion de problèmes lexicaux en français langue seconde 2025-12-19
  Résumé Cette étude, menée dans l’esprit de l’analyse conversationnelle (AC), se propose d’investiguer l’emploi de tu sais par des apprenants du français langue seconde (L2), en situation de problème lexical. Nos résultats résonnent avec l’étude de Clayman & Raymond (2021) sur you know, et montrent que tu sais est utilisé à la fois pour gérer […]
• Italian Sign Language 2025-12-19
  Abstract This paper presents a protocol for annotating Italian Sign Language (LIS) that merges cognitive and socio-semiotic principles with the technical demands of sign language processing for automatic sign recognition. The protocol is applied to a preliminary LIS dataset and integrates insights from both formalist and functionalist frameworks in sign language processing, aiming to leverage […]
• Dimensions of variation across institutional legal and administrative registers 2025-12-19
  Abstract This study applies full Multidimensional Analysis (MDA) to examine linguistic variation in the Polish Eurolect — a hybrid variety shaped by translation and institutional constraints within the European Union — by comparing it to the national variety. Using a corpus of key institutional registers (legal acts, judgments, administrative reports, and citizen-oriented websites), we identify […]
• Review of Carr (2025): The Language of Sex Education: With Respect to Consent 2025-12-19
• Si in Old Catalan and Old Occitan 2025-12-19
  Abstract This article explores the distribution of the particle si in Old Catalan and Old Occitan. Recent work on si has connected it to the satisfaction of Medieval Romance V2 be it as an expletive or as an alternative to verb movement, always connected to topic continuity. Early Old Catalan (11th–12th centuries) presents the particle […]
• Review of Szarkowska & Jankowska (2025): Introducing Audiovisual Translation 2025-12-19
• Exploring intersemiotic and interlingual translaboration 2025-12-19
  Abstract “Labor” is a subject matter of Xu Bing’s art installation Phoenix and its reincarnation in the ekphrastic poem by Ouyang Jianghe, a concept that has rarely been foregrounded in its own right in Translation Studies, and an indispensable element of the coinage of “translaboration” blending translation and collaboration. With a focus on the subjective […]
• Social deconstruction and power negotiation 2025-12-18
  Abstract This study investigates how language functions as a vehicle for framing Africa in global discourse, arguing that social deconstruction begins with linguistic practices that either reinforce or challenge entrenched hierarchies. It examines strategies that depict Africa as politically unstable, socially disordered, and economically fragile, while also identifying counter-discourses that foreground African agency. Using Fairclough’s […]
• Doing pragmatics with style 2025-12-18
  Abstract Linguistic expressions of negation have been investigated from various perspectives: sociolinguistic variation, syntax, semantics and pragmatics. However, this linguistic phenomenon has received little attention in discourse studies. This corpus-pragmatic case study presents a systematic analysis of the use and functions of NOT-negation in oppositional discourse, specifically in the writings of Ta-Nehisi Coates. Methodologically, it […]
• Minimal effects of L2 phonetic training on non‑naïve learners’ perception of cross‑linguistic similarity 2025-12-18
  Abstract Accuracy of L2 categorization is linked to the degree of perceived similarity between L1 and L2 categories. The effectiveness of high variability phonetic training in improving L2 perception is widely reported. Still, the effect of training on cross-linguistic perceived similarity is largely unexplored. Thirty-eight Catalan/Spanish bilingual learners of English underwent L2 vowel identification and […]
• Editors’ corner 2025-12-18
• Initiating answers with en fait (‘in fact’) in L2 French interaction 2025-12-18
  Abstract This study examines the use of en fait by second language (L2) French speakers as a resource for initiating answers in interaction. Drawing on a longitudinal video-recorded corpus (‘Pauscaf-L2’) and using the tools of Conversation Analysis, the study investigates the developmental trajectory of en fait across proficiency levels in L2. The analysis reveals three […]
• Patterns of iconicity across sign languages and gestures 2025-12-16
• Translating Inuit circumpolar literature 2025-12-16
• Review of Shih & Wang (2024): Translation and Interpreting as Social Interaction: Affect, Behavior, and Cognition 2025-12-16
• Disentangling aspect and tense in L2 acquisition 2025-12-16
  Abstract This article reports on an empirical study investigating the second language (L2) acquisition of the Chinese perfective markers le and guo and their aspectual/temporal features by English-speaking learners, under the framework of the Feature Reassembly Hypothesis (Lardiere, 2008, 2009). English lacks dedicated perfective markers, whereas Chinese is rich in aspect marking but has no […]
• Review of Schiappa (2022): The Transgender Exigency: Defining Sex and Gender in the 21st Century 2025-12-16
• Valence distribution and valence alignment in the metaphor być na świeczniku in the Polish language 2025-12-16
  Abstract This study investigates the valence distribution and alignment of the Polish metaphor być na świeczniku (literally ‘to be on a candlestick’), which represents public visibility and attention. While conventionally considered positive, corpus analysis of the Polish Web Corpus 2019 reveals that the meaning of the metaphor is more nuanced. The study shows that neutral […]