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Folia Linguistica

Acta Societatis Linguisticae Europaeae

Editors-in-Chief: Viviana Masia and Maria Napoli

Language: English

First published: January 1, 1967

Publication Frequency: 4 issues per year

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Starting 2026, Folia Linguistica and Folia Linguistica Historica will be transferred to Open Access on a year-by-year basis. All articles will thus appear without delay under the Creative Commons license CC BY 4.0. There will be no publication costs for the authors. The Open Access transformation is based on Subscribe-to-Open. You can find more information about the model here.

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Folia Linguistica and Folia Linguistica Historica are the peer-reviewed journals of the Societas Linguistica Europaea (SLE). Each volume consists of two issues of Folia Linguistica, one issue of Folia Linguistica Historica, and one Special Issue.

Folia Linguistica is dedicated to advancing research in general linguistics, with a particular emphasis on the synchronic studyof language. The journal provides a platform for theoretical, cross-linguistic, and descriptive research that explores linguistic structures and their functions across the world’s languages, as well as the use of language in social, cognitive, and communicative contexts.

Even when focusing on individual languages and/or on specific phenomena within a single language, papers are expected to be framed within more general theories of the functioning of human language and communication and be thus of interest for a broader linguistic community.

While Folia Linguistica embraces a broad coverage of research on core areas of linguistic inquiry, it does not consider submissions that primarily address Second Language Acquisition, Artificial Intelligence applications, or psychological and neurophysiological experimentation on language processing. Authors pursuing these topics are encouraged to submit their papers to more specialized journals.

Folia Linguistica Historica is exclusively devoted to empirically based diachronic linguistics of all language families, from various theoretical perspectives. Papers should be directed towards a general linguistic audience, offering a contribution to our understanding of language change and to methodological aspects in the field of diachronic linguistics.

N.B. Since the editorial staff is managing a very high number of articles focused on specific language subfamilies, and in order to ensure a more balanced representation of the spectrum of languages covered by Folia Linguistica, it is at the discretion of the editorial team not to consider for publication any submission that would lead to an overrepresentation of a specific language and its varieties.

Article formats
Research articles, Review articles, Book reviews, Miscellanea (reports and discussion notes)

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As of 2026, all De Gruyter journal subscriptions include access to every issue, from Volume 1, Issue 1 through to today, meaning subscribers can access even more research at no additional cost.

Open Access
Dialect vowel maintenance in a diglossic context: a study of linguistic heterogeneity in Gavaṛ, Armenia

June 16, 2025

Emma Portugal

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This study uses variationist methods to assess whether three demographic factors (self-reported gender, birth year, education level) correlate with maintenance of previously described dialect vowels in Gavaṛ, Armenia. Some maintenance was found, contradicting previous claims about dialect leveling in Armenian cities. Specifically, in picture-naming and word-list data, men maintained some dialect vowels more than women, while the other two demographic predictors were not significant (though preliminary analysis of spontaneous speech suggests that age may also be relevant for dialect vowel maintenance in less monitored speech contexts). Participants’ positive attitudes toward both Standard Eastern Armenian and the local dialect, along with the lack of significant results for education level, are consistent with Armenia’s diglossic environment, suggesting that even some highly educated speakers use dialect features outside of formal domains. This result demonstrates the key role of local language ideologies, as social class has been found to predict use of standard variants in more well-studied Western contexts. Because the analysis included one allophonic phenomenon whose results showed idiosyncratic tendencies, the study also has implications for evaluating social meaning of phenomena with different phonological statuses.
Open Access
Morphological and syntactic adjective intensification in L2 Italian and German in a multilingual context

December 8, 2025

Stefania Spina, Aivars Glaznieks

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We present a comparative study in which we analyse the use of the intensified adjective construction by young learners of Italian and German from the multilingual region of South Tyrol (Italy). Italian and German share a range of intensifying constructions, relying both on morphological (e.g., the intensifying prefix construction It. strapieno , Ger. supervoll ‘very full’) and syntactic resources (e.g., the prototypical adverb + adjective construction It. molto pieno , Ger. sehr voll ‘very full’). However, they also rely on language-specific means, such as the Italian superlative suffix – issimo ( pienissimo ‘very full’) and the German intensifying compound construction ( knallvoll ‘very full’). By adopting a Diasystematic Construction Grammar and a usage-based approach, we investigate the ways in which different morphological devices interact and compete with each other and with syntactic intensification devices in L2 Italian and German. Results show that the frequencies of the intensified adjectives and learners’ proficiencies are the main predictors for the use of a morphological intensification type in both L2 Italian and German. However, morphological intensification is only occasionally used in L2 German, while L2 Italian learners commonly rely on the superlative construction in –issimo , competing with the prototypical syntactic construction.
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The counterargumentative connection in Italian: experimental evidence on the connective tuttavia

October 20, 2025

Laura Nadal, Iria Bello Viruega

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Counterargumentation marks the disruption of a causal chain by introducing an unexpected conclusion that cancels inferences drawn from a previous premise. The present study compares the processing costs produced by three minimal counterargumentative structures: a) counterargumentation marked by the Italian connective tuttavia (Eng. ‘however’); b) counterargumentation in utterances lacking a connective but containing the phoric element entrambi (Eng. ‘both’); c) counterargumentation with no procedural unit. The reading experiment (1 × 3 design) was carried out with 88 native Italians. The results show that both tuttavia and entrambi are processed as procedural units and that the semantic instruction of the connective helps reduce processing costs, especially when the connection of the phoric element is not present.
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Word order variation in Kurmanji ditransitive constructions

February 2, 2026

Milad Shariatmadari, Pegah Faghiri, Pollet Samvelian

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The placement and realization of direct and indirect objects (henceforth DO and IO) in Kurmanji is subject to variation; e.g., DO and IO can be placed before or after one another in the preverbal domain; IO can be placed before the verb as an adpositional phrase, or, if recipient, it can be realized as a noun phrase (NP) after the verb. Although the postverbal variant has been the subject of a number of studies, the relative order between DO and IO in the preverbal domain has almost gone unnoticed. Taking a quantitative approach, in this study, first, we conducted a corpus study to observe the frequency of occurrences of IO in relation to the direct object and the verb, and to identify the potential factors that are involved in determining the choice of word order. Results indicated a clear preference for the DO-IO-V order. Definiteness of the DO, animacy of the IO, and the relative length between DO and IO are among the factors showing a meaningful effect. We next conducted a sentence production experiment to evaluate the effect of definiteness and animacy in a controlled manner. The results of our experimental study confirmed the effect of definiteness and animacy found in our corpus study. We further discuss the efficiency of each word order option in light of efficiency principles proposed by usage-based accounts of word order preferences.
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On classifying Yorùbá noun phrases

June 5, 2025

Mayowa Akinlotan

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The study examines some selected Yoruba noun phrases’ internal structure, processes and meaning. This predominant Nigerian language relies on creativity and innovativeness in its structures and meaning process. Drawing on contemporary everyday data and language idiosyncrasies, this study identifies four Yorùbá NP types and analyses their constituents. It argues that the determiner and modification systems exhibit complex movement and placement that not only form the characteristic structural features of the language but also as cues to the meaning and interpretation process. Findings reveal that there appears to be a movement-and-placement competition between these two constituents. However, the determiner system outweighs the modification system’s ability to move freely within the NP structure. While this is the case for the determiner system, the study establishes that the movement and placement of the modification system are more related to the processing of meaning and interpretation than the movement and placement of the determiner. The study concludes that structural properties may represent the nature and texture of international Yoruba, a new trend in language usage to meet the growing demand among diasporic speakers globally.
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Agreement in Najdi Arabic existential sentences

June 4, 2025

Bader Yousef Alharbi

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It has been observed that existential sentences (ES) crosslinguistically display different agreement patterns. For instance, in the dialect of Najdi Arabic (NA) the ES shows interesting asymmetric agreement patterns. When the nominal pivot precedes the copular verb, the verb must fully agree with the pivot NP in all ϕ-features. Conversely, when the nominal pivot follows the copular verb, the verb always shows up with the third-person masculine singular features regardless of the ϕ-features of the nominal pivot. This paper aims to provide an analysis for these asymmetric agreement patterns in the NA ES by using a single mechanism, namely Agree. The analysis suggests that the obligatory full agreement results from Agree between the head v with unvalued ϕ-features and the pivot NP with interpretable ϕ-features. However, the other agreement type results from Agree between the head T with unvalued ϕ-features and the NP fiih that bears third-person masculine singular features. This latter type of agreement explains why the copular verb in some NA ES always shows up with the third-person masculine singular features regardless of the pivot ϕ-features. The proposed analysis in the current work may make useful insight into the ongoing discussion on ES agreements crosslinguistically.
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Exploring ecolinguistics: ecological principles and narrative practices

August 29, 2025

Hossein Davari, Amir Ghorbanpour

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Open Access
Modality in mind

December 15, 2025

Rasmus Bernander

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Rescuing grammaticalization from construction hegemony: the evolution of the modal better

December 8, 2025

Carmelo Alessandro Basile, Debra Ziegeler

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The present paper examines the relationship between grammaticalization and constructionalization in the context of recent studies on Diachronic Construction Grammar. Building on the concept of “Event Schemas” in language change, it explores the diachronic evolution of the English modal construction BETTER (in the forms had better , ’d better, and plain better + v ) since Old English times. The proposed study demonstrates that although this could be regarded as a typical case of ordinary grammatical constructionalization it is better explained as grammaticalization through Event Schemas, where the conceptual source elements of possession and evaluation remain evident throughout the construction’s entire diachronic journey. In this way, the possessive Event Schema known as the “Goal Schema”, likely grammaticalized into an “Action Schema” (explaining the introduction of the copula have found in present-day English), with the meanings of evaluation associated with the predicate adjective, better, co-existing as an Evaluative Schema. Thus, grammaticalization is manifested in the observed continuity of both possessive and evaluative semantic coordinates in the evolution of had better , which would not be permitted under typical constructionalization accounts that require parallel changes in both form and meaning.
Open Access
On the directionality from temporal to conditional

July 15, 2025

Yueh Hsin Kuo

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This paper examines the purportedly unidirectional process from temporal connective to conditional connective. As conditionals developed into temporals and vice versa in Chadic languages, Japanese and Mandarin, unidirectionality in the strict sense is unlikely, even though conditionals are more grammatical than temporals. As the bidirectional changes likely originated in contexts where formal and functional equivalence held between temporals and conditionals and their morphosyntactic distinction was vague, it is proposed that the changes are regular processes mediated by morphosyntactic vagueness. The proposal thus suggests that grammatical change may be regularly bidirectional. Grammaticalization, if defined in terms of regularity rather than unidirectionality, may be bidirectional, too.
Open Access
Sak-relatives in Reunion Creole: examining the distinction between light-headed and free relatives

April 7, 2025

Alina McLellan

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This article revisits the issue of light-headedness in relative clauses, arguing that the distinction between light-headed and free relative clauses is not clear-cut in Reunion Creole. Analysis of a heterogeneous set of first-hand data from Reunion Creole reveals that at least two distinct light-headed structures exist for the same surface form, one likely deriving from the other. I argue that a third structure, which is a true free relative clause and not a light-headed one, may be developing from two light-headed ones, meaning that demonstratives could be a source for free relative pronouns in this language. The article contributes, on the one hand, to our knowledge and understanding of an underrepresented language, and on the other hand, to our understanding of the typology of headless relative clauses. In examining the distinction between light-headed and free relatives in Reunion Creole, the article sheds light on a possible pathway of grammaticalisation, from light-headed relative to free relative, that has to date received little attention.
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What linguists think everyone should know about language – on extracting salience from open-ended responses

July 10, 2025

Tomas Lehecka, Jan-Ola Östman

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The study reports on a global survey asking linguists what they think everyone should know about language. Specifically, we asked linguists to formulate questions that it would be important for the general public to know the answer to. We received 3,349 suggestions for such questions from 538 linguists from 49 different countries. The study undertakes a content analysis of these open-ended responses. We analyze the text data at three levels of abstraction: (i) the overarching themes that the responses represent, (ii) the general questions about language that the individual responses relate to, and (iii) the specific topics that are mentioned in the responses. Results show that Variation and (language as a) System are the most recurrent themes among the responses, that ‘How and why do languages change?’ is the most frequently provided question, and that Language learning , Language structure , and Comparing languages are the most prevalent topics in the data. We contend that these findings reflect what issues are the most salient to linguists when asked about language in general. However, we also show that there is considerable variation in the responses, indicating that not all linguists think of the same issues when asked what everyone should know about language. The study provides a foundation for discussions and further research on the practical value of language-related knowledge for the general public.
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Consonant clusters in Qassimi Arabic: analysis from optimality theory and sonority principles

October 3, 2025

Aseel Al-Aboudi, Mohammad Aljutaily

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Consonant clusters in Qassimi Arabic (QA) exhibit distinct patterns of adherence to and deviation from the Sonority Sequencing Principle (SSP), analyzed here using Optimality Theory (OT). This study identifies three sonority profiles in QA clusters: falling, equal, and rising. While coda clusters generally conform to the SSP, onset clusters often violate it, which OT constraints effectively explain. Rising sonority violations in coda clusters are resolved through vowel epenthesis, whereas falling or equal sonority clusters of two obstruents require no epenthesis. The choice of the epenthetic vowel is influenced by vowel harmony and the place of articulation of adjacent consonants. Additionally, QA clusters reveal unique characteristics regarding minimal sonority distance: zero in coda clusters and (-1) in onset clusters. Through OT, the interplay of markedness and faithfulness constraints determines optimal cluster formation. For QA onset clusters, constraints are ranked as ONS >> SyllCon >> *V(short)]σ >> SSP >> LINEARITY >> Comp-Ons >> MAX-IO >> DEP-IO, while for coda clusters, the ranking is ONS >> *V(short)]σ >> SSP >> *i[-Pahr] >> Comp-Ons >> MAX-IO >> DEP-IO. This research sheds light on SSP violations, vowel epenthesis, and their governance in QA, enriching our understanding of its phonological structure.
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The weight of VOT and f0 in English stop differentiation: 2L1 bilinguals versus monolinguals

May 26, 2025

Sha Liu, Kaye Takeda

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This study focuses on the differences and similarities between 2L1 bilinguals and monolinguals from the perspective of the weight of VOT and f0 as cues in English stop differentiation. The paper takes both Japanese-English and Mandarin-English 2L1 bilinguals into consideration, as f0 has different roles in stop distinguishing in Japanese and Mandarin. The statistical analysis models indicate that both kinds of 2L1 bilinguals show differences from the English monolinguals that cannot be explained by cross-linguistic interaction. Efficiency can satisfactorily explain these observed differences. Neither 2L1 bilingual group differs from the English monolingual group both in the weights of VOT and f0. The Japanese-English 2L1 bilingual group relies less on VOT than the English monolingual group in word list reading and more on f0 than the English monolingual group in text reading, although VOT and f0 have similar weights as cues for stop differentiation in Japanese and English. The Japanese-English 2L1 bilingual group uses one cue differently from the English monolingual group to distinguish between their two first languages. The Mandarin-English 2L1 bilingual group relies on f0 as much as the monolingual group in English stop differentiation although f0 has a lighter weight in Mandarin stop differentiation; this may make the differentiation between Mandarin and English easier.
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Local grammar and speech act analysis: a case study of compliments

February 24, 2025

Mengyuan Tang

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As local grammar starts to receive attention in the field of corpus linguistics, this study examines the local grammar of the speech act of complimenting. Utilizing the corpus from the first three seasons of Modern Family , the research identifies ten functional categories, revealing both commonalities and individualities in their use based on explicit and implicit strategies. A total of 31 explicit compliment patterns and 2 implicit ones are classified. The application of local grammar offers a clear and holistic perspective, enriching corpus pragmatics and providing communicative instructions for EFL and ESL learners.
Open Access
How to express extreme quantity through Italian adverbial partially filled constructions

July 16, 2025

Martina Verdelli

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The aim of this paper is to explore the linguistic expression of extreme large quantities by focusing on some Italian adverbial constructions characterised by the [a + X NOUN <plural> ] pattern. These constructions can be considered as quantity intensifiers used to express a constructional meaning related to abundance that can be summarised as ‘a lot, in large quantities’. After presenting the syntactic and semantic properties shared by these expressions, a set of data extracted from the web will be analysed with a corpus-driven approach. The goal of the work is twofold: on one side, a comparison between the combinatorial contexts of the selected expressions will be presented and discussed, in order to highlight similarities and differences between them; on the other, a qualitative analysis of a specific multiword, a fiumi , will be proposed.
Open Access
The history of Dutch haar as a plural object pronoun and the provenance of Skepi or

October 22, 2025

Bart Jacobs

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New evidence from the extinct Dutch-lexified creole Skepi has brought to light the pronoun or as its third person plural form. This article proposes that or is a cognate of standard Dutch haar ‘her’, which in Early Modern Dutch also functioned as a plural pronoun meaning ‘them, their’ (present-day standard Dutch hun∼hen ). As such, the article provides a window into a largely forgotten chapter of Dutch pronominal history: the polysemous role of haar as both a singular feminine and all-gender plural pronoun. We revisit that chapter, focusing on the use of haar as a plural object pronoun (‘them’). The article reconstructs the diachronic development of haar in that role and traces its synchronic distribution in modern non-standard varieties of Dutch, Frisian, and Low German. Finally, we examine the dialectal provenance of Skepi or , with Zeelandic emerging as the primary suspect.
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Intra-language differences of motion event encoding – a case of advent paths in Mandarin Chinese

July 28, 2025

Sai Ma, Ye Jin, Michael Barlow

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Despite considerable research on motion event encoding, studies from the perspective of intra-language differences are still few in number. To examine whether motion event encoding is influenced by event types (translational vs. fictive events), this study investigates lexicalization patterns and associated linguistic features of Mandarin advent path (one type of fictive motion) expressions and compares them with existing findings on translational motion event expressions. Data were collected from a self-built corpus. Results show that fictive motion expressions differ from translational motion event ones in encoding motion events. Specifically, in Mandarin advent path expressions, 1) there are three main lexicalization patterns: the satellite-framed language pattern, the double-framing pattern, and the verb-framed language pattern; 2) the frequency of path verbs is similar to that of manner verbs; 3) alternative expressions of manner information are used frequently; and 4) the complexity of Ground encoding is low. These findings suggest that event types contribute to intra-language differences of motion event encoding and that a motion event encoding pattern is better applied to a certain event type in a certain language than to a language as a whole.
Open Access
When possessor and argument indexes coincide. A cross-linguistic survey

February 24, 2025

Alessandra Barotto, Andrea Sansò

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Cross-linguistically, it is not uncommon to find the same person indexes in noun and verb phrases, referring, respectively, to the possessor of the noun and to various (combinations of) arguments (A, S and P). This phenomenon has never been the object of a dedicated typological survey. This article seeks to address this gap by investigating cases in which possessor and argument indexes coincide in a variety sample of 225 languages. The parameters of analysis include the (combinations of) arguments indexed, the type of coincidence (total, covering all persons in a given index set, or partial, limited to some persons), the segmental similarity between coinciding argument/possessor indexes and independent pronouns, the restriction of coinciding indexes to specific TAM and/or voice constructions, and the type of possessor indexes involved (alienable vs. inalienable). The typological survey is further complemented by a discussion of diachronic scenarios that may explain these patterns of coincidence, including (but not limited to) parallel developments from independent pronouns and the reinterpretation of nominalized forms of the verb (where possessor indexes correspond to an argument of the full verb) as predicative forms.
Open Access
The fast-over-slow asymmetry: speed adverbs in Estonian

December 16, 2025

Piia Taremaa, Johanna Kiik, Ann Veismann

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Linguistic asymmetries have been of great interest in much research and continue to provide intriguing insights into the working mechanisms of language. Focusing on the domain of speed , we explore the structure of Estonian speed adverbs and provide evidence for the fast-over-slow asymmetry – the tendency for fastness to be expressed more extensively than slowness. As a pre-study, in which we combined dictionary lookup, corpus and rating methods, we compiled a list of 419 speed adverbs, with 369 representing the clearest instances. The main study revealed that the number of unique fast adverbs (e.g. kiiresti ‘fast, quickly’) is more than four times larger than that of slow adverbs (e.g. aeglaselt ‘slowly’). Comparing the 30 most frequent fast adverbs to the 30 most frequent slow adverbs further showed that the token frequency of fast adverbs, as attested in the Estonian National Corpus 2021, is significantly higher than that of slow adverbs. Nevertheless, the meaning of fast adverbs was not intensified by prefixoids (e.g. hüperkiiresti ‘hyper fast’) and reduplication (e.g. kiiresti - kiiresti ‘quickly-quickly’) more frequently than that of slow adverbs. The study suggests that the widely acknowledged inherent asymmetry in polar antonyms is rooted in the general asymmetry in lexicon, which, in turn, reflects cognitive asymmetries.
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Aspectual transitions and lexical derivations: mapping inchoativity in French and Spanish grammar

December 3, 2025

Filip Verroens, María Martínez-Atienza

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The paper aims to provide a typological analysis of inchoativity in Romance languages, specifically focusing on French and Spanish. The concept of inchoativity, which marks the beginning of an event or change of state, has been ambiguously used and inconsistently defined across linguistic studies. The paper highlights the complexities in terminology, where the same term may represent different concepts or be applied in varied contexts. Two primary approaches are explored: the onomasiological perspective, which examines how inchoativity is expressed through lexical and grammatical elements, and the semasiological perspective, which focuses on the morphological features of verbs denoting state changes. Finally, the paper examines if an integrated approach, attempting to bridge these perspectives, can be defended. In contrast to earlier studies, we conclude that significant challenges remain in reconciling them at the semantic level.
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“But I think, with respect, that the trial court was wrong”: but signalling stance in Nigerian Supreme Court Judgements

October 7, 2025

Florence Oluwaseyi Daniel

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This study investigates the stance functions of but as a contrastive marker in Nigerian Supreme Court judgements to explore other lexical means of marking stances in the legal genre aside value-laden words and lexico-grammatical constructions. The study analysed a corpus of Nigerian Supreme Court judgements comprising lead, supporting and dissenting judgements for stance classification, following the stance triangle model. Findings show that the contrastive marker mostly signals epistemic, evidential, and evaluative stances, an indication that even with but the presentation of subjective positions in judicial opinions entails evaluation of other stance takers’ stances, assertive presentation of such positions alongside cogent evidence to justify and legitimise them. Alignment and affective positions are rarely signalled with but in the corpus, which implies that beyond any other communicative intents, projection of individual voice based on legal principles and facts is more important to the judge than expression of affect or alignment with others.
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Testing lexical specificity hypotheses in world Englishes: evidence from the null subject alternation

October 7, 2025

Iván Tamaredo

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The present paper tests a series of hypotheses dealing with variation, across dialects of English, in the degree of lexical specificity of constructions. The study focuses on the null subject alternation, which is conceptualized here as consisting of two allostructions, the null and overt variants, of a more schematic constructeme. Five hypotheses put forward in the specialized literature are adapted to the null subject alternation and tested on a dataset of null and overt subjects extracted from GloWbE by means of five indexes of frequency and lexical specificity. The results confirm four of the five hypotheses and provide further support to the claim that speakers of varieties of English in earlier phases in Schneider’s Dynamic Model rely more on partially lexically filled constructions.
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The evaluative suffixoid -head and its Spanish and Italian equivalents

July 31, 2025

Elisa Mattiello, José A. Sánchez Fajardo

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This study examines the evaluative morphology of the English suffixoid -head and its equivalents in Spanish and Italian. Adopting a construction morphology approach, the research focuses on the pejorative and human-related connotations in English [x- head ] N constructions, such as crackhead or fathead . A quantitative/qualitative analysis using the itTenTen20 and esTenTen18 (in Sketch Engine ), combined with a contrastive analysis in OPUS parallel corpora (OPUS2), reveals that, while English often uses suffixoids for negative evaluation, Spanish and Italian employ different morphological strategies, such as augmentatives, loose compounds, or syntactic constructs. The study further explores the morphosemantic features of equivalent constructions [ cabeza de [x] N ] N and [ cabeza [x] A ] N (in Sp.) and [ testa di [x] N ] N and [ testa [x] A ] N (in It.), comparing their meanings and productivity. The findings contribute to understanding how construction networks in languages from different families can converge in expressing similar evaluative frames – such as representing individuals with negative traits through body part references – while also highlighting structural preferences, such as the widespread use of N of N syntagmatic patterns in Romance languages. Importantly, the study acknowledges that these constructions are not inherently tied to negative evaluation or to the presence of the lexeme head , but rather reflect broader tendencies in phrase formation and semantic extension across languages.
Open Access
‘They cost me less pains than tragedy does’: on the configuration of the quantifiers less and fewer in English

June 24, 2025

Javier Calle-Martín, Marta Pacheco-Franco

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Although less and fewer are supposed to have their particular domains for the expression of quantification, this has not always been the case in the history of English. These two quantifiers coexisted in free variation – irrespective of the typology of the noun – down to the eighteenth century. While some scholars have believed that the advent of prescriptivism seemed to specialise their distribution – with fewer being used exclusively for count nouns – the issue has been controversial on two grounds. On the one hand, it is unclear whether the distinction between fewer and less resulted from the codification of English grammar or if it was a usage-derived development later confirmed by grammarians. On the other hand, the state of affairs in present-day usage is uncertain, as less is lately being used regardless of the typology of the noun. In light of this, the present paper provides an overview of the phenomenon over time, paying attention to the historical and contemporary distribution of the quantifiers less and fewer in combination with count and mass nouns. From a corpus-based perspective, the paper examines the phenomenon throughout Modern English as well as across World Englishes today and concludes that usage preceded codification and that, while less is indeed spreading into the domain of fewer , the process appears to be slow and localised so far.
Open Access
Object experiencer nominalizations in Italian: the anticausative hypothesis versus the light verb construction hypothesis

December 5, 2025

Simonetta Vietri

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This research analyses Object Experiencer (OE) nominalizations, a widely discussed topic in the broader debate on the lexicalist versus the syntactic hypotheses concerning nominalizations. I tested two types of hypotheses to explain Italian OE nominalizations: the anticausative hypothesis and the light verb construction hypothesis. The former proposes that causative psych nominalizations from OE verbs undergoing causative-anticausative alternation are derived from the anticausative alternant. The light verb construction hypothesis suggests that OE nominalizations derive from light verb constructions that encode the result of the change in emotional state. I show that the anticausative hypothesis does not explain some counterexamples, whereas the light verb construction hypothesis correctly explains all OE nominal constructions, regardless of whether they derive from verbs that undergo the causative-anticausative alternation. Psych nominalizations inherit their argument and event structure from light verb constructions and show a resultative semantics.
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Can syntax swallow semantics? Or might it not be the other way around?

March 19, 2025

Patrick Duffley

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In the Generative model of human language, the semantic component has the role of interpreting the syntax. This amounts to semantics being swallowed up by syntax and explains Chomsky’s reiterated statements that at bottom natural language has only syntax and pragmatics: “natural language has no semantics … it has syntax (symbol manipulation) and pragmatics (modes of use of language)” (Chomsky, Noam. 2013. Notes on denotation and denoting. In Ivano Caponigro & Carlo Conchetto (eds.), From grammar to meaning: the spontaneous logicality of language , 38–45. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). It will be argued that this conclusion is predetermined by the view of language as a computationally perfect syntactic system. Language is thereby reduced to syntactic distribution and symbol manipulation, linguistic form separated from meaning, with syntax being investigated according to the goals of coherence and consistency and subsequently reconnected extrinsically to the world by means of pragmatics. It will be shown that a basic understanding of the nature of language, which is constituted by the fundamental correlation between linguistic signs and their meanings, reveals that one cannot isolate and study separately the physically observable side of language without tearing asunder the very object of one’s investigation. The causal conditioning of syntax by both semantics and pragmatics will be demonstrated via the examples of English causative verbs and the ‘degree adverb + proper name’ construction.
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From interactional to informative discourse: a 90-year evolution of newspaper headlines (1930–2019)

September 23, 2025

Ruhan Güçlü

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This study investigates unplanned (interactional) and planned (informative) discourse in Cumhuriyet newspaper headlines diachronically across five 18-year historical periods: 1930–1947, 1948–1965, 1966–1983, 1984–2001, and 2002–2019. Drawing on the Turkish-adapted taxonomy derived from Biber’s (1988) Multidimensional Model (Dimension 1), it analyzes lexico-grammatical discourse features within a corpus-based approach. The findings reveal a consistent predominance of planned discourse, reflecting both structural characteristics of the Turkish language and conventions of newspaper media writing. At the same time, the analysis highlights notable shifts in stylistic and linguistic features, suggesting that while planned communication remains dominant, discourse practices have been gradually reshaped by developments in education, technology, and socio-cultural trends. These changes point to the evolving nature of newspaper genres and a movement towards more formal journalistic styles in recent years.
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Beyond “to be”: multiple copula verbs in Munya

May 30, 2025

Junwei Bai

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This paper examines copulas in Munya, a Qiangic language within the Tibeto-Burman family, focusing on how they express identity, existence, location, and possession. While Munya uses a distinct copula for identity, it employs eight polysemous copulas for the other three senses. The selection of these copulas is determined by the properties of what this paper terms the “copula-determining referent”, which can be the copula subject or copula complement. The study further investigates dialectal variations in copula inventory and meaning, and proposes that possessive constructions in Munya evolved from existential ones through a process of transitivization.
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A reverse way: agreement marker motivates the subject in Persian frame impersonal constructions

March 31, 2025

Sahar Bahrami-Khorshid

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This paper is an attempt to investigate an idiosyncratic construction in Persian called ‘Frame Impersonal Constructions’, in detail. One of the remarkable features of this construction is the permanent occurrence of verb as 3 sg ; this feature naturally evokes the nature of the subject in this construction. Adopting a cognitive grammar formulation, I show that ‘Frame Impersonal Constructions’ are in fact instances of setting-subject construction in which some unspecified ambient force or energy is at work to stimulate a sensory experience on some animate entity. This stimulus is best codified as 3 sg , since the setting is reasonably construable as a 3 sg entity. The interesting point is that in ‘Frame Impersonal Constructions’ it is the 3 sg agreement on the verb which can be motivated as making reference to the semantic relevance of the setting-subject; that is, agreement marker alone profiles the setting-subject, whereas in personal constructions a separate overt nominal encodes the clausal subject. This finding asserts that the occurrence of agreement is semantically motivated, in contrast to accounts which consider it a purely syntactic constituent which occurs by default. The semantic pole of this construction also reveals that the enclitic which obligatorily occurs in ‘Frame Impersonal Constructions’ is the host of some sensory impression exerted by the schematic setting; hence, it is considered as experiencer.
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Unveiling the approximative verb kaada in Standard Arabic: a constraint-based approach

January 28, 2026

Abdulrahman A. Althawab, Halima N. Alhabib

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Kaada is one of the proximity verbs that has confounded Arabic grammarians, initiating long-standing linguistic debates on its syntax and semantics. The present paper aims to provide a descriptive and theoretical account of kaada within the constraint-based approach of Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG). It particularly seeks to investigate these three aspects: the characterizing linguistic properties of kaada in Standard Arabic (SA), an HPSG theoretical account of kaada ’s syntactic and semantic properties, and the interaction of kaada with negation within the framework of Minimal Recursion Semantics (MRS). The primary source of linguistic data/examples is Falak Platform, which is a modern corpus used in the current paper to provide authentic SA examples and thereby facilitate a reliable empirical analysis. Among the key contributions of this paper is the clarification of narrow and wide negation scopes of kaada , as well as the identification of the proper interpretation of negated kaada , which is considered a rich area of linguistic inquiry. This paper also presents practical implications for the comprehension of ambiguous constructions of kaada in SA. Potential research directions include the application of similar frameworks to other copular verbs in SA and the exploration of kaada -like constructions in dialectal Arabic and other languages.
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The metamorphosis of ʤaaj in Rural Jordanian Arabic

April 28, 2025

Basem Ibrahim Malawi Al-Raba’a, Mohammad Alhailawani

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This paper reports on the syntactic and semantic properties of grammaticalized uses of the motion active participle ʤaaj ‘coming’ in Rural Jordanian Arabic (RJA). We show that ʤaaj has undergone grammaticalization, resulting in the emergence of three markers with distinct semantics and syntactic behaviors. In particular, we show that ʤaaj has three functions in RJA: (i) a volitional act marker, signifying a purposive or deliberate action, (ii) a marker of inceptive aspect, indicating the initiation of an action, and (iii) a directive mood marker, encoding imperative mood. From a syntactic perspective, we argue that the three markers occupy distinct functional head positions in the clause in line with Cinque, Guglielmo. (2006). Restructuring and functional heads: The cartography of syntactic structures , Vol. 4. Oxford: Oxford University Press. The volitional and inceptive ʤaaj respectively head their own functional projections, Volition Phrase and Aspect inceptive Phrase, both located below Tense Phrase. On the other hand, the directive ʤaaj heads an imperative Mood Phrase above Tense Phrase. We support this division by showing that the first two makers exhibit full agreement in phi-features with the thematic subject, whereas the latter does not agree with the subject at all due to its high position above Tense Phrase. The findings of this paper align with the crosslinguistic observation that motion verbs like come can be grammaticalized into varying functional elements (Bybee, Joan L., Revere Perkins & William Pagliuca. 1994. The evolution of grammar: Tense, aspect and modality in the languages of the world . Chicago: The University of Chicago Press; Dragomirescu, Adina & Alexandru Nicolae. 2014. The multiple grammaticalization of Romanian veni ‘come’. Focusing on the passive construction. In Maud Devos & Jenneke van der Wal (eds.), Come and go off the beaten grammaticalization path , 69–100. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter; Heine, Bernd & Tania Kuteva. 2002. World lexicon of grammaticalization . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; Kuteva, Tania, et al. 2019. World lexicon of grammaticalization , 2nd edn., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; Lumien van Klinken, Catherine. 1999. A grammar of the Fehan dialect of Tetun . Canberra: Pacific Linguistics).
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Experimental evidence suggests that null complement anaphora in Russian is not reducible to clausal ellipsis

July 9, 2025

Mikhail Knyazev

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Null complement anaphora, NCA (e.g., I suggested the price was too high, and she agreed ∅.), is a long known but poorly understood phenomenon subject to idiosyncratic lexical restrictions. In languages like Russian, however, it is (or appears) productive, with verbs not allowing NCA hard to find, raising the question whether omission of the clausal argument (CP) in NCA contexts can be derived by a supposedly regular process of CP/clausal argument ellipsis, which has recently gained attention in the literature, and which independently exists in Russian. This paper tests the prediction of this view whereby selection for CP should be sufficient (and necessary) for NCA-licensing, using two acceptability rating studies based on a corpus-based list of potential NCA-licensors. The results suggest that whether a verb licenses omission of the CP in NCA contexts is not predictable from its ability to license CP, and that the process is lexically sensitive. This provides evidence against analyzing NCA contexts as a result of CP ellipsis and more generally against reducing NCA to the latter in Russian and similar languages. The paper highlights issues of cross-linguistic variation in the study of NCA. It also raises questions about the parallelism condition on clausal ellipsis.
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A comparative typological analysis of passivisation and functional alternatives: Keenan’s passive universals in Eshkevari Gilaki (EG), Hungarian, and lingua franca languages

September 15, 2025

Yasin Khoshhaldelijani

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Passives in some languages are less frequent than in English, and this infrequency is compensated for by alternatives. This typological analysis focuses on passivisation and semi-passive constructions in two lesser-studied languages: Eshkevari Gilaki (EG) and Hungarian. For comparative context, three widely-studied lingua franca languages, English, Mandarin Chinese and Arabic, are also referenced. It evaluates these languages’ conformity to Edward L. Keenan’s universals of passive productivity. The synthesised data are derived from native speakers and existing literature. Hungarian and EG, being topic-prominent, adopt passive-like functional alternatives such as agentless clauses, impersonals and middles. Moreover, the observations challenge the assumed direct correlation between syntactic flexibility and passive productivity. Despite its less-configurational nature, Hungarian prioritises pragmatic role assignment over syntactic promotion. This analysis proposes an extension of Keenan’s framework, arguing that typological restrictions on passivisation emanate not from structural incapacity but from morphosyntactic conditions and discourse-pragmatic priorities. It is also suggested that, given the unique features observed in EG (inchoatives and middles) and Hungarian (telicity), functional alternatives and semi-passives should be integrated into cross-linguistic typology, particularly for languages with low EGIDS rankings.
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Why so serious? An interdisciplinary approach to humour and play in satirical discourse (language play and creativity, vol. 6, ed. Nancy Bell)

August 29, 2025

Lynn Blin

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Changes in linguistic etiquette of modern Japanese: borrowing and transformation of traditional forms of expression

May 26, 2025

Jingli Li

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The study aimed to examine the changes in linguistic etiquette in modern Japanese, focusing on the process of borrowing and transforming traditional forms of expression. To achieve this, the study relied on the analysis of social networks such as Twitter, LINE, and 2ch. By examining the language used on these social networks, the study was able to identify the most popular loanwords used by Japanese speakers in their daily communication. It also analyzed how these loanwords were integrated into the Japanese language and how they impacted the traditional form of Japanese polite language (keigo) and other styles of speech. The research primarily involved the lexical-semantic. Therefore, three groups of words with borrowings were analyzed, that is keigo, gairaigo, and wakamono kotoba. The study’s findings have significant value in the educational sphere, as they provide a unique insight into the features of Japanese language and society, which can be used by foreigners to learn more about Japanese culture. The study’s findings can be useful for language teachers, linguists, and cultural researchers interested in exploring the complex relationship between language, culture, and society in contemporary Japan.
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Exploring psycholinguistic reality of local grammar patterns: a case study of health metaphor in research articles of economics

September 23, 2025

Lei Zhang, Xuemei Tang

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In corpus linguistics, local grammar has been recognized as an effective approach to describing the semantic patterns of language for a particular communicative function/meaning. However, no study has yet examined whether the semantic patterns (i.e. local grammar patterns) produced by local grammar analyses are psychologically real for language learners. To assess the psycholinguistic reality of local grammar patterns, it is reasonable to start with testing whether such patterns can affect language learners’ processing of their corresponding language instances. This study used an eye movement experiment to test whether the local grammar patterns of a particular type of metaphorical expressions (i.e. health metaphor) in research articles of economics can influence Chinese EFL learners’ perception and comprehension of these expressions. The results showed that the occurrence of particular meanings and the positioning of the meanings in the patterns significantly affected the learners’ processing. These findings provide evidence for the psycholinguistic reality of local grammar patterns. The study also provides theoretical implications for local grammar research and metaphor research and pedagogical implications for metaphor teaching.
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Sofia Rüdiger, Theresa Neumaier, Sven Leuckert, & Sarah Buschfeld, eds. 2025. World Englishes in the 21st century: new perspectives and challenges to the dynamic model. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Pp. xxv + 392. ISBN 9781399527842

September 23, 2025

Michael Westphal

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Lexical contact in Africa: Italian loanwords in the Mà’dí language of South Sudan and Uganda

July 23, 2025

John Hajek, Valentina De Iacovo

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We examine the presence of Italian loanwords in Mà’dí (ISO 630 code [mhi]), a Moru-Madi language spoken in South Sudan and Uganda. The existence of Italian loanwords elsewhere in Africa is the result primarily of colonial contact, and/or the presence of communities of Italian-speakers originally from Italy. We show that the Italian loanwords in Mà’dí have two sources of transmission: (a) direct contact with Italian Catholic missionaries; (b) indirect mediation via Arabic (mostly via a creole form of it, known as Juba Arabic). We argue that what are in some cases loanwords borrowed from Arabic are in fact ultimately indirect loans from Italian, having first entered into Arabic. Other loanwords, presumed to be Anglicisms, may be or are also Italian in origin or show some evidence of contact with Italian. The situation is rendered more complicated by the presence of borrowings that may instead be Latin or even Portuguese in origin – the latter potentially having entered Mà’dí indirectly through Swahili.
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Operationalizing grammatical metaphor

October 20, 2025

Lise Fontaine, Miriam Taverniers, Alex Carr, Stella Neumann

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Nominal grammatical metaphor (NGM), as theorised within systemic functional linguistics (SFL), typically refers to cases where a process is ‘metaphorically’ encoded through nominal resources, rather than its typical encoding through the clause. Previous approaches to the study of NGM have generally relied on the concepts of agnation and congruence, but these concepts can be quite subjective in nature, leading to an unstable account of the phenomenon. This paper evaluates the theoretical status and methodological implementation of NGMs. Our aim is to consider whether Aktionsart can offer a means of operationalizing NGM. We analyzed 492 nouns from a random selection of 200 sentences in the PopSci register of the CroCo corpus. The nouns were analyzed separately by different coders in terms of (i) grammatical metaphor status and (ii) their ontological status combined with an analysis of Aktionsart. Our statistical analysis shows that adopting an Aktionsart approach provides a more nuanced and anchored methodology for the analysis of NGMs as it not only provides a more consistent and robust analysis, but it also enables us to specify subtypes of nominal grammatical metaphor based on their subtler semantic characteristics.
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Polyfunctional heri (হেৰি) in Assamese: a view from Discourse Grammar

August 28, 2025

Abhijnan Pritam Sarma, Tohru Seraku, Sweta Sinha

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Whilst there is a wealth of morphosyntactic studies on Assamese (Indo–Aryan), little attention has been paid to its semantic and pragmatic aspects. In this paper, we describe the polyfunctional item heri in Assamese, drawing on examples from podcasts, supplemented by film and web series scripts. We show that heri functions as a vocative (politely addressing an unknown person), a placeholder (substituting for a target form), an interjective hesitator (filling pauses interjectively), a general extender (yielding a conjunctive or disjunctive list reading), and a discourse marker (initiating new conversation topics). Furthermore, we model the grammatical, functional, and prosodic properties of heri across these distinct uses and analyse them in the framework of Discourse Grammar. The placeholder and general extender uses fall within the Sentence Grammar domain, and the vocative, interjective hesitator, and discourse marker uses are situated in the Thetical Grammar domain. Also, the developments of the interjective hesitator and discourse marker uses are examined through the lens of cooptation, a pragmatic operation whereby a unit in Sentence Grammar is recruited as a unit in Thetical Grammar. This study represents the first functional–grammatical analysis of Assamese based on spontaneous data.
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Stylistics

October 2, 2025

Florence Floquet

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Orientation preverbs in Qiangic: multifunctionality and grammaticalization in cross-linguistic perspective

October 2, 2025

Linlin Sun

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This study undertakes a cross-linguistic investigation of orientation preverbs in Qiangic languages (Sino-Tibetan), examining their multifunctional properties (scope and type) and grammaticalization trajectories within the framework of Functional Discourse Grammar (FDG). By identifying both typological variation and shared patterns evident in these trajectories, this study establishes a classification of Qiangic preverb systems based on their degree of functional diversification. This typological classification reveals two different systems: Type I systems display limited grammatical multifunctionality, with preverbs primarily encoding perfective aspect and certain illocutionary values while retaining their directional semantics. Type II systems exhibit more advanced grammaticalization, where the preverbs of a system can systematically express a wider spectrum of TAME (tense-aspect-modality-evidentiality) functions through deeper integration with the grammar of the language. The FDG-based analysis yields five potential paths of grammaticalization for the preverbs. These paths suggest that the multifunctionality observed in Type I systems emerges from interactions between the lexical and grammatical systems of a language, while the multifunctionality in Type II systems is largely attributable to subsequent grammatical evolution.
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Neological -ance nominalizations of psych predicates

July 22, 2025

Philippe Gréa, Marie-Laurence Knittel, Rafael Marín, Florence Villoing

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Object experiencer psych verbs (OEPV) in French ( fasciner ‘fascinate’) exhibit a surprising behavior in their derivational properties: most of them are related to adjectives in -ant ( fascinant ‘fascinating’), but virtually none of them have a nominalization in - ance , with the sole exception of attirance ‘attraction’, although - ance can derive nouns from both adjectives ( élégance ‘elegance’ from élégant ‘elegant’) and verbs ( surveillance ‘monitoring’ from surveiller ‘monitor’). However, in a current research project on nominalizations based on a very large corpora, we have found a significant number of neological - ance nouns related to OEPVs, such as fascinance ‘lit. fascin- ance ’. We argue that these neological N- ance are not properly verbal, but related to a morphological family containing an OEPV ( fasciner ‘fascinate) and an adjective in -ant ( fascinant ‘fascinating’). They can be constructed on the verb (in which case they denote states) but also, and more frequently, on the adjective (they then denote properties). This is completely impossible for standard derivatives, which explains the success of neological N- ance .
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D-Linked wh-phrase in Arabic: contrast, cliticization and topic values

May 22, 2025

Murdhy Alshamari, Naif Alshammari

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Standard assumptions maintain that D-Linked wh-phrases (DLW) presuppose discourse-givenness and contrastiveness being associated to the referent expressed by the wh-associate DP. Developing the characterization of DLW as involving a [TOP] feature, the novelty this contribution advances is that in Hail Arabic, a Najdi variety of Arabic, DLW encodes Familiar Topic [F-Topic], a Topic value that is distinguished within Topics typology, while contrastiveness is not consistently involved in DLW interpretation. Investigating weɪn ‘where-pattern’, we demonstrate that DLW is expressed via cliticization; a mechanism whereby a clitic φ-agreeing with the DP is spelled out on weɪn . Implementing Cartographic and Minimalist assumptions, it is shown that DLW movement, triggered by u-[φ], is Shortest, targeting the outer Spec of PrP. This Shortest movement allows weɪn to φ-probe the DP, an Agree relation that results in lexicalizing the clitic on weɪn , driving weɪn -CL and demotivating peripheral movement of weɪn . The DP receives F-Topic interpretation, valued by v-[F-TOP] on weɪn . Further insight emerges where the DP carries contrastiveness due to u-[CONT], which triggers movement of the DP to the Spec of a C-layer dedicated for Contrastiveness, KontP, stranding weɪn -CL in PrP-domain. The extracted DP receives Contrastive Topic interpretation by the combination of F-Topic and CONTRAST.
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The meaning of constructions

August 20, 2025

Anthe Sevenants

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The non-grammaticality of phonetics

June 11, 2025

John M. Anderson

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Here I observe that the grammatical system that constitutes our knowledge of language and formulates how syntactic and phonological structures may be constructed on the basis of context and the categories and their colligational information stored in the lexicon of signs does not contain a phonetic level. Indeed, what phonetics describes does not contribute to this grammatical system, but belongs to an interface where it implements phonological structures as a set of articulatory movements; and, reversing the interface, the sounds they create can be scanned by our auditory apparatus for indication of those distinctions in sound and their location that can be used to differentiate signs. These articulations and the functioning of the specifically auricular apparatus are capacities that differ from the purely mental capacity that is our knowledge of grammar and its use. One indication of this is precisely the lack of any grammatical motivation for the recognition of a determinate phonetic level, something not always acknowledged by phonological theories. This situation is illustrated here with reference to so-called ‘vowel harmony’ and to the prosodic contribution to the characterization of ‘ i -umlaut’ and ‘breaking’ in the development of Old English.
Open Access
Discovering and mapping predicted but undocumented morphosyntactic variation through Twitter: evidence from Spanish bare count singulars with ir a

January 30, 2026

David Paul Gerards, Patrick Steinmetz, Levin Ludwig Schwarzkopf

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This paper investigates – to the best of our knowledge, for the first time – whether social media platforms can be used to detect and geographically map theoretically predicted but previously undocumented morphosyntactic variants. Specifically, it examines Spanish bare singular count nouns with ir a (lit. ‘to go to + [noun]’) across different national varieties of Spanish, as opposed to Standard Spanish ir al + [noun] (lit. ‘to go to the + [noun]’). Based on Twitter data ( n = 6,206), we show that such bare singular count nouns exist and are particularly prevalent in Colombian Spanish, a fact not previously reported in the literature. However, a follow-up acceptability judgment task with native Spanish speakers ( n = 226) suggests that social media data may produce false positives, especially for low-frequency phenomena. As a result, we argue that such studies should always be complemented by other methods, e.g., from experimental linguistics.
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VP copying interacting with verum focus

August 1, 2025

Ningxian Li

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This study investigates the syntax of VP copying by looking at data from Mandarin Chinese. It focuses on VP copying used to express verum focus and presents a two-step syntactic process that involves moving a DP to a topic position, a case of left dislocation, and the remnant movement of the VP to the TopP at the CP domain. As to the phonetic realization of both verb copies, this paper adopts a minimalist Spell-Out framework by Bleaman (2022. Predicate fronting in Yiddish and conditions on multiple copy Spell-Out. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 40(2). 393–424) and Collins and Stabler (2016. A formalization of minimalist syntax. Syntax 19(1). 43–78). The findings in this paper not only contribute to syntactic theory by elucidating syntactic structures and their pragmatic functions, shedding light on the current debate regarding the syntax of VP copying observed in various languages, but also pave the way for further research on the interplay between information structure and syntax in conveying emphasis and focus in Mandarin Chinese.
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The predicate restriction in Najdi Arabic existential sentences: an empirical perspective

August 25, 2025

Bader Alharbi, Mohammad Aljutaily

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The predicate restriction (PR) indicates that only stage-level predicates (SLP) are permitted in the coda position of existential sentence (ES), whereas individual-level predicates (ILP) are barred. This restriction has theoretically shown to be available in the structure of the ES of Najdi Arabic (NA). This study aimed to empirically examine whether the facts reported in the theoretical literature about the effect of the PR in NA ES were reflected in the actual use of NA ES. A grammaticality judgement task in the form of a questionnaire was presented to 85 NA native speakers. The participants were asked to rate the grammaticality of the NA ESs given in the questionnaire according to their intuition. The questionnaire comprised three conditions based on the predicate type: adjectival SLP, adjectival ILP, and nominal predicates. It was expected that NA ES with adjectival SLP would yield the best ratings of the three conditions, followed by ES with adjectival ILP and ES with nominal predicates. As expected, the findings showed that the NA ES with adjectival SLP obtained the higher ratings, whereas those with adjectival ILP and nominal predicates obtained the very lowest ratings. These findings revealed that adjectival SLPs are more acceptable in the coda position of NA ES, whereas adjectival ILPs and nominal predicates are unacceptable in this position. This empirical study established a connection between the conclusions confirmed in the theoretical literature and the actual manifestations of the PR in the structure of ES.
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The grammaticalization path of the Kaakye relative clause marker

August 14, 2025

Levina Nyameye Abunya

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Languages develop their relative markers from a variety of sources. This paper examines the paths along which the relative marker in Kaakye, (a Kwa Niger-Congo language) has developed. Using the concept of grammaticalization as a framework, evidence suggests that the Kaakye relative marker kɛ́ originates from the manner demonstrative adverb kɛ́nɩ̀ŋ̀ , which means ‘in such a manner’ or ‘like this/that.’ The grammaticalization process begins with desemanticization, where the adverb’s concrete meaning, tied to its deictic reference, is first used to specify a referent noun phrase. Over time, this function evolves into a more abstract grammatical element, ultimately developing into a relative marker. Other mechanisms of grammaticalization such as extension, decategorialization and erosion, and Hopper’s principles of divergence associated with development process are discussed. Though the relativizer is derived from a demonstrative as it is attested in other languages, the particular grammaticalization path identified is quite unique. The paper contributes to the study of grammaticalization in general and provides a particular piece of evidence to support demonstratives as sources of relative markers.
Open Access
From reflexive clitic to marker of human impersonal subjects: the Resian reflexive sa

October 7, 2025

Florian Wandl

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Like standard Slovenian, Polish, and several Romance languages, the Slovenian dialect of Resia forms impersonal clauses by combining transitive and intransitive verbs with reflexive clitics. Due to their syntactic and semantic properties, these reflexive impersonals have been analyzed as involving a subject with an arbitrary human referent realized by the reflexive clitic. Based on data from a recent translation of The little prince and other Resian resources, this paper brings forward hitherto unnoticed empirical evidence supporting this analysis. Unlike other Slavic languages, Resian has developed a set of subject clitics whose position in the clause differs from that of object clitics. Interestingly, when forming impersonal constructions, reflexive clitics are placed like subject clitics and not like object clitics as they are in other contexts. Furthermore, the distribution of the reflexive clitic variants se and sa in The little prince suggests that the latter is becoming the sole impersonal marker while the former is used to express all other reflexive meanings. This implies that sa is developing into a separate subject clitic. The general significance of these findings lies in the fact that they demonstrate a link between impersonal reflexives and subjects which does not depend on the assumption of a specific theoretical framework.

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Issue 9

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Issue 3

Issue 2

Issue 1

Folia Linguistica publishes special and thematic issues focussed on important and emerging topics in the field of study. The journal has established a rigorous process to ensure that any special issue manuscripts follow the same high-quality standards and peer review processes as regular manuscripts. For further information on the journal’s peer review policy please see the "Instructions for Authors".

Recent Special Issues

Volume 59 | Issue 2 Special Issue: Left and right peripheries in discourse; Guest Editors: Matthias Klumm and Augustin Speyer

Journal Impact Factor	0.5	2024, Journal Citation Reports (Clarivate, 2025)
5-year Journal Impact Factor	0.6	2024, Journal Citation Reports (Clarivate, 2025)
Journal Citation Indicator	0.47	2024, Journal Citation Reports (Clarivate, 2025)
CiteScore	1.2	2024, Scopus (Elsevier B.V., 2025)
SCImago Journal Rank	0.409	2024, SJR (Scimago Lab, 2025; Data Source: Scopus)
Source Normalized Impact per Paper	1.099	2024, CWTS Journal Indicators (CWTS B.V., 2025; Data Source: Scopus)
European Reference Index for the Humanities	0

More information about journal rankings

Submission
Submit manuscripts for Folia Linguistica exclusively online at: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/folialing.

You will be guided through the process. Please see Information for Authors before submitting.

The submissions for Folia Linguistica Historica should be sent via email to the Editor and Editorial Assistant:

Professor Dr. Maria Napoli
Università del Piemonte Orientale
E-mail: maria.napoli_folh@uniupo.it

Editorial Assistant
Irene De Felice
Università del Piemonte Orientale
E-mail: irene.defelice@uniupo.it

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Submission process

Submission of your paper
Peer review process (you will be guided through every step)
Decision on your paper (10-12 weeks for submission to first decision)
If accepted: you have the option to publish it open access
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Please note

Style: Please make sure that your manuscript follows the De Gruyter Mouton journal style sheet, see also the Information for Authors, available on this website on the 'Overview' tab under the heading 'Supplementary Files'.
Please submit your MS in PDF and Word format, both as e-mail attachments. Other formats (.odt, LaTeX, etc.) cannot be accepted.
Manuscripts must be written in clear and concise English
Before submitting your article please have a look at our copyright agreement and Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement
Our repository policy allows you to distribute 30 PDF copies of your published article to colleagues (the PDF has to include the information that it is an author's copy). Please also feel free to distribute the link to the online abstract. Detailed information can be found at Public Repositories tab
If you have any general questions please visit our FAQ-Page for authors

We look forward to receiving your manuscript!

Hybrid Open Access

Authors have the option to publish their article under an open access license. The standard article processing charge for a hybrid open access article is 2,400 Euro (plus VAT if applicable). Please note that corresponding authors from institutions with which we have a transformative agreement, can publish open access without paying the fee. More information on the eligible institutions and articles can be found here.

Folia Linguistica
Editor-in-Chief
Dr Viviana Masia
Department of Foreign Languages, Literatures and Cultures
Roma Tre University
Via del Valco di San Paolo, 19
00146, Rome (Italy)
E-mail: viviana.masia@uniroma3.it and viviana.masia@gmail.com

Editorial Assistants
Dr. Virna Fagiolo
Università per Stranieri di Siena (Unistrasi)
E-mail: virna.fagiolo@unistrasi.it

Dr. Giorgia Mannaioli
Roma Tre University/University of Rome "La Sapienza"
E-mail: giorgia.mannaioli@uniroma3.it

Review Editor
Dr. Eric Mélac
Département d'études anglophones
Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3
E-mail: eric.melac@univ-montp3.fr

Editorial Board
Enoch Aboh (University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands)
John Ole Askedal (University of Oslo, Norway)
Kasper Boye (University of Copenhagen, Denmark)
Giorgio Carella (Roma Tre University)
Marco Casentini (University of Ca' Foscari, Italy)
Sonia Cristofaro (University of Pavia, Italy)
María Josep Cuenca (University of Valencia, Spain)
Katarzyna Dziubalska-Kołaczyk (University of Poznań, Poland)
Teresa Fanego (University of Santiago de Compostela)
Mara Frascarelli (Roma Tre University, Italy)
Jeffrey Heath (University of Michigan, USA)
Gunther Kaltenböck (University of Graz, Austria)
Carmen Lepadat (University of Siena/Roma Tre)
Belén Méndez-Naya (University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain)
Amina Mettouchi (Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, France)
Heiko Narrog (Tohoku University, Japan)
Martine Robbeets (Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena)
Jean- Christophe Verstraete (University of Leuven, Belgium)
Letizia Vezzosi (University of Perugia, Italy)
Xu Wen (Southwest University Chongqing, China)

Folia Linguistica Historica

Editor-in-Chief
Professor Dr. Maria Napoli
Università del Piemonte Orientale
Department of Humanities
Via Galileo Ferraris 116
13100 Vercelli
Italy
E-mail: maria.napoli_folh@uniupo.it

Editorial Assistant
Irene De Felice (Università del Piemonte Orientale, Italy)
E-mail: irene.defelice@uniupo.it

Associate Editor
Eitan Grossman (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel)

Review Editor
Lars Erik Zeige (Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany)
Email: lars.zeige@rz.hu-berlin.de

Editorial Team
Christian Geddo (Univers ità della Svizzera Italiana, Switzerland)
Giulia Fontana (Università del Piemonte Orientale, Italy)

Editorial Board
Kasper Boye (University of Copenhagen, Denmark)
Bert Cornillie (University of Leuven, Belgium)
Bridget Drinka (University of Texas at San Antonio, USA)
Patience Epps (University of Texas at Austin, USA)
Piotr Gąsiorowski (Adam Mickiewicz University Poznan, Poland)
Hans Henrich Hock (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA)
Dmitry Idiatov (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France)
Guillaume Jacques (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France)
Johanna Laakso (University of Vienna, Austria)
Roger Lass (University of Edinburgh, UK)
Piera Molinelli (Università di Bergamo, Italy)
Muriel Norde (Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany)
Nikolaus Ritt (University of Vienna, Austria)
John Charles Smith (University of Oxford, UK)
Freek Van de Velde (KU Leuven, Belgium)
Ferdinand von Mengden (Freie Universität Berlin, Germany)

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Linguistics and Semiotics Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines General Linguistics

Online Submission of Manuscripts

Journal information

Additional information

eISSN:

1614-7308

ISSN:

0165-4004

Language:

English

Publisher:

De Gruyter Mouton

Additional information

First published:

January 1, 1967

Publication Frequency:

4 issues per year

eISSN: 1614-7308

ISSN: 0165-4004

Audience(s) for this journal

researchers in the fields of linguistics and social sciences

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Folia Linguistica

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