Latest Content

• Metaphor, Metonymy and Lexicogenesis 2024-12-15
  This book investigates the interaction between new English lexis and metaphor/metonymy – figures meticulously defined and contrasted in terms of similarity/contiguity. It advances three main hypotheses: (i) derived lexis is more likely to be figurative in meaning and usage than the bases from which it is derived; (ii) derivation obscures the figurative origins of this […]
• Media as Procedures of Communication 2024-12-15
  The book explores the multifaceted nature of media and communication by challenging traditional views that consider media solely as technical infrastructures for transmitting information. Instead, it focuses on mediality as an empirically relevant concept and proposes to understand media as socially constituted semiotic procedures that shape and are shaped by communicative practices. The book is […]
• Influencer Discourse 2024-12-15
  The rise of influencers, as power-players in the social media landscape, is a defining feature of the digital era, one that has received much attention from a variety of social science disciplines. But despite the key role that language, along with other semiotic modes, plays in the construction and communication of influencer selves, discourse analytic […]
• A Construction Grammar of the English Language 2024-11-15
  The present book provides an introduction to the linguistic model of Construction Grammar, offering a full analysis of the grammar of the English language. It covers all levels of morpho-syntactic form-meaning units: including sentence types, tense and aspect, argument structure, phrases, idioms, word and morphological constructions. In line with its usage-based approach, all constructions are […]
• Audiovisual Input and Second Language Learning 2024-11-15
  This volume presents research on second language learning through audiovisual input, conducted within the SUBTiLL (Subtitles in Language Learning) project at the University of Barcelona. It includes studies exploring various language dimensions and skills, such as vocabulary, pronunciation, and reading, while also considering learner factors, such as language learning aptitude and proficiency. Two distinctive features […]
• Comparing metaphor elicitation models 2024-10-21
  Abstract Metaphor has increasingly been recognized as an effective investigative tool, especially in educational research, because it allows for insight into implicit beliefs, values and assumptions about the world around us. This article discusses methodological issues involved in ‘getting at’ students’ metaphors, the first step in metaphor analysis in educational research. Our focus is on […]
• Conceptualising meso translation policy 2024-10-21
  Abstract Like language policy, translation policy is a complex adaptive phenomenon where multiple agents interact dynamically at diverse levels and affect how principles such as equality, inclusion, and non-discrimination are implemented at concrete, structural levels. While a fair amount of work has been done on top-down and bottom-up translation policy, more research about meso-level translation […]
• The more proficient the learners, the less sophisticated their L2 vocabulary? 2024-10-21
  Abstract Mean-frequency scores of lexical sophistication are used to evaluate written and spoken language production. They are calculated using word frequencies extracted from a reference corpus. Using mixed-effects regression models, we analyse the strength of the relationship between L2 proficiency and mean-frequency scores in spoken and written texts using reference corpora representing different modes and […]
• Exploring the evolution of the concept of liberty in the U.S. presidential inaugurals 2024-10-21
  Abstract As daily news unveils, fundamental human values such as equality and liberty can be expressed through various terms influenced by multiple factors, reaching significant levels of disparity, ambiguity and controversy, particularly in specific socio-political contexts. This article employs advanced corpus analysis tools to examine the lexical and semantic configuration of the “right to liberty” […]
• Introduction 2024-10-21
• Applying Cognitive Linguistics to elucidate the meanings of the particles IN/OUT and UP/DOWN in L2 classrooms 2024-10-21
  Abstract Cognitive Linguistics offers valuable insights for second language instruction, particularly in enhancing motivated polysemy to facilitate vocabulary acquisition. This paper reports on a longitudinal, classroom-based study and analyses the design, implementation, and assessment of activities inspired by Cognitive Linguistics, elucidating the polysemous meanings of the particles IN/OUT and UP/DOWN. The study involved an experimental […]
• Designing L2 pronunciation instruction activities for primary school learners 2024-10-21
  Abstract This study employs a content analysis approach to examine the presentation of pronunciation instruction (PI) activities in six elementary school English language teaching (ELT) textbook series used in China. Among the textbooks analyzed, two series are published in English-speaking countries for commercial use, while two are published in China for public schools. The remaining […]
• “The twain is crossing” 2024-10-21
  Abstract The storyworld presented in the 2023 fantasy-comedy film Barbie is predicated upon a simple ontological binary: there is the Real World, in which humans reside, and Barbie Land, populated by plastic dolls, and it is roundly accepted that “never the twain shall cross”. However, throughout the film this divide is problematised, as the two […]
• Complexity and accuracy of verbal morphology in written L2 Italian 2024-10-18
  Abstract The present study aims to verify previous findings on the role of proficiency in the degree of complexity and accuracy of verbal morphemes in written essays from intermediate and advanced L2 Italian learners. In addition, by taking the perspective of usage-based theories on the distributional properties in the input, it investigates the extent to […]
• Code-switching in South Asian English CMC 2024-10-18
  Abstract This paper analyses the use of indigenous language elements including code-switching in two contrasting genres, i.e. group chats and Twitter memes along with tweets, in the English communication of South Asian (Bangladeshi, Indian, Pakistani, and Sri Lankan) internet users. The results from group chats show that one of the most common lexical indigenous elements […]
• Trade-offs in translation effects 2024-10-18
  Abstract Trade-offs are solutions to translation problems where two or more apparently incompatible values are sought at the same time. As such, they present an alternative to theories that see translation as operating between two polarities of the one value. Analysis of three illustrative examples suggests that receivers can activate trade-offs that are quite different […]
• Language teachers’ awareness of their accents at a Thai university 2024-10-18
  Abstract The need to incorporate Global Englishes (GE) awareness and informed practices into English language teaching (ELT) has encouraged practitioners to revisit their language curricula and include Other Englishes in their language teaching practices, impacting how language is taught and learned. The present study explores how five non-native English language teachers at a university in […]
• Review of Dimova, Kling & Margić (2023): EMI Classroom Communication A Corpus-Based Approach 2024-10-18
• “One soft kiss” in a derelict world 2024-10-18
  Abstract The paper focuses on the contemporary Irish poet Alan Gillis’s latest collection, The Readiness, with special attention paid to “Metropolis” and “Vespers,” two long poems that come in the latter part of the volume. In them, the pressures of late modernity, which are thematised throughout The Readiness, are given sustained attention, revealing loneliness and […]
• The thematic organization of consumer safety instructions in English 2024-10-18
  Abstract This study investigates how the content of consumer safety instructions is organized in Themes and N-Rhemes and connected by thematic progressions. The Themes are chiefly directives or representations of the product and its usage. The goal of safety instructions, on the other hand, i.e. avoiding dangers and their negative outcomes, is mainly represented in […]