2022 - Call for papers for a special volume

Dear colleagues,

The Revista do GEL (https://revistas.gel.org.br/rg) launches a call for papers for a special volume with the title “Functional approaches to linguistic change”, to be published in December 2022. The volume will be coedited by Profs. Drs. Cibele Naidhig de Souza (UFERSA/GESF), Edson Rosa Francisco de Souza (UNESP/GESF), Evelien Keizer (University of Vienna) e Michel Gustavo Fontes (UFMS/GESF).

Functional approaches to linguistic change

Functional approaches to language aim to identify and explain the sociocognitive and interactive factors that play a role in the use of language as an instrument of communication. A major area in functionalist research is linguistic change, the study of which has contributed to our understanding not only of the entire complex of multi-level processes which constitute the grammatical structure of a language, but also of the boundaries (often fuzzy and imprecise) between the categories used in verbal interaction. The aim of this thematic volume is to bring together papers offering functional descriptions of linguistic change phenomena. The papers in question will be either descriptive in nature, focusing on different levels of analysis (phonetic-phonological, morphological, syntactic and/or semantic-pragmatic), or may be written within any current functionalist theory, including traditional approaches to grammaticalization and lexicalization, Usage-Based Models and/or constructional approaches to linguistic change, Functional Discourse Grammar, etc.

Issues related to this thematic volume: grammaticalization; lexicalization; constructional changes; constructionalization; functional motivations for linguistic change; sociocognitive mechanisms of linguistic change; etc.

Deadline for submission: July 10, 2022