Language Sciences最新文献

{"title":"Methodological issues in ecolinguistics as a research project: a constructivist perspective","authors":"Alexander V. Kravchenko","doi":"10.1016/j.langsci.2025.101768","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.langsci.2025.101768","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The status of ecolinguistics as a research project is discussed from the point of view of its relationship to the ‘normal science’ of linguistics on the one hand, and its conceptual-theoretic foundations on the other. While sometimes claimed to be a new emerging paradigm in the study of language, ecolinguistics, or what goes under the name, is also routinely viewed as a branch of linguistics, often associated with sociolinguistics and critical discourse analysis. This, I argue, raises the question of whether modern ecolinguistics is, indeed, a new scientific paradigm in the Kuhnian sense, replacing the old paradigm, thereby signaling the beginning of a scientific revolution. A brief survey of the trends and developments in ecolinguistics over the past decades shows that, even though this is not yet the case, a new research paradigm is, indeed, in the making, as the conceptual-theoretic foundations of linguistic orthodoxy are re-evaluated and rejected in favor of empirically more sound and theoretically more sustainable views of language as species-specific interactional cooperative behavior crucial for the preservation of the delicate balance in global ecology. However, while tentatively moving in the right direction, ecolinguistic research lacks a well-defined methodology based on a clear conceptual-theoretic framework that would justify the “eco” part in its name. The article aims to make up for this by using a systems approach to language in the framework of constructivist epistemology, viewing language as a cognitive domain in which humans evolve as living systems. Leaning on Humberto Maturana's work, evolutionary biology and Niche Construction Theory, I argue for the necessity to take the concept of ecolinguistics, which “seems to converge on a shared appreciation of the need to pursue empirical work and theoretical development in tandem” (Steffensen, 2024a), farther and view it as a nascent transdisciplinary science of language as that which makes us what we are, <em>Homo loquens et scribens</em> evolving in the cognitive domain of language as our manner of living. To legalize its independence from the pre-science of linguistics, this new science would be much better off with a new name, to be decided on by the community of bio-ecologically minded researchers.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51592,"journal":{"name":"Language Sciences","volume":"113 ","pages":"Article 101768"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145363061","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Impact of word predictability on metrical alignment in English verse","authors":"Michael H. Kelly","doi":"10.1016/j.langsci.2025.101777","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.langsci.2025.101777","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Predictable, less informative words are reduced in duration in conversational speech. This study extends this pattern to the rhythmic structure of English verse. Study 1 shows that monosyllabic content and function words are more likely to appear in weak positions in Shakespeare's verse when they are relatively predictable (e.g., high in frequency, high in conditional probability given the following word, and/or high in conditional probability given the previous word). Similar patterns appear in Milton's verse in study 2, indicating that the patterns generalize beyond works like Shakespeare's which were typically composed for live spoken performance. Similar to findings with conversational speech, the conditional probability of word given the following word is the most consistent predictor of metrical alignment in verse, reinforcing the importance of anticipatory processes in language production. These patterns in written verse provide one case where word predictability effects cannot readily be interpreted through ease of access and associated facilitation of articulatory planning and execution, a common explanation for their presence in speech. Exemplar-based lexical models are discussed as an alternative, including further predictions about verse structure if correct. This study aligns with other research showing that the rhythmic structure of verse follows the same principles as spoken prosody, but extends the parallels to contextually-driven variation. It also adds to other research suggesting that, across domains, information value in a message is encoded by variables associated with prominence.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51592,"journal":{"name":"Language Sciences","volume":"113 ","pages":"Article 101777"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145571354","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Why are group chats so toxic?: A view from cognitive ecology","authors":"Andrey S. Druzhinin ,&nbsp;Diego A. Ramírez","doi":"10.1016/j.langsci.2025.101776","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.langsci.2025.101776","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>There is hardly any form of social media interaction more inflammatory and emotionally distressing than the so-called online group chats reportedly associated with such negative experiences as anxiety, hate speech, violence and even homicide. Adopting a cognitive ecolinguistic approach, we view an act of media use as a functional systemic unity between the media user's bodily “ways of meaning” and the affordable environmental resources on which she draws in these ways for meaning to emerge. As human ways of meaning are based on skillful enactment of mutually orientational behaviors across timescales, everything that a media user does is in and through language. The problem arises when such doings fail to be properly distinguished, namely, the two ontologically different and semiotically autonomous activities – those of text(ing) and talk – become enmeshed. We argue that the colloquial term ‘group chat’ is a complete misnomer for what (corpo)really happens in every act of media use because the user interacts <em>with</em> the digital technology rather than <em>with the help</em> of it. While natural group chat is a locally constrained and emplaced mutually orientational behavior, virtual group messaging is a technologically constrained realization of literacy skills by a media user who imagines/assumes the others to exist in a certain way and place. Semiotically, when we engage with the group via messaging, we are texting <em>instead of</em> talking. To think that we are talking <em>through</em> texting or that we are texting <em>as if</em> talking is a fallacy that results in a dysfunctional human-environment cognitive ecology.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51592,"journal":{"name":"Language Sciences","volume":"113 ","pages":"Article 101776"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145571355","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Abolishing the ‘abyssal line’ through southern translingualism: re-envisioning university ELT pedagogy through teacher-researcher collaboration in Pakistan","authors":"Waqar Ali Shah ,&nbsp;Sarwat Anjum","doi":"10.1016/j.langsci.2025.101774","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.langsci.2025.101774","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Translanguaging scholarship encourages use of students' named languages and linguistic repertoires into academic contexts to challenge nationalistic assumptions and raciolinguistic ideologies. Taking these inspirations, the present study reports findings of translanguaging pedagogy enacted in a Pakistani university ELT classroom through teacher-researcher collaboration. Data in this study come from students' translanguaging projects and focus group discussions with students. Using southern translingualism, we considered integrating learners' trans/plurilingual repertoire, i.e., named languages as well as diverse semiotic repertoire to disrupt the dominant ideologies shaping ELT discourses in Pakistan. Findings suggest that the students understood translanguaging in terms of pluri-versal view of both the languages and epistemologies in the South. Their projects used pluri-lingual, trans-semiotic, and epistemological repertoires by connecting learning to land, culture, messy communicative practice and epistemologies. Translanguaging is regarded as an effective intellectual tool to value indigeneity and empower both linguistically minoritized as well as majoritarian (linguistic) groups in southern societies influenced by English and national lingua franca(s). The study further shows how local ELT contexts can be re-configured through pluri/translingual transformative regimes by incorporating changing views of English proficiency and integrating the students' plurilingual, trans-semiotic and epistemological diversity in the ELT classes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51592,"journal":{"name":"Language Sciences","volume":"113 ","pages":"Article 101774"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145466088","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Reconciling inclusion and accessibility: Solutions for non-binary linguistic strategies in grammatical gender languages","authors":"Martina Giovine","doi":"10.1016/j.langsci.2025.101778","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.langsci.2025.101778","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The ongoing debate concerning gender-fair language in grammatical gender languages reveals a profound philosophical tension between the principles of inclusivity and accessibility. Specifically, certain linguistic strategies designed to ensure equity for non-binary individuals appear to impede accessibility, raising questions about potential trade-offs between these two ideals. This article investigates the nature of this apparent conflict by exploring the conceptual foundations of both accessibility and inclusion. I analyse specific linguistic strategies as a case study and argue that, although they may pose obstacles to accessibility, these tensions are not insurmountable. I conclude that, to reconcile accessibility and inclusion, it is crucial to understand the nature of accessibility challenges. Once these challenges are identified, appropriate solutions can be implemented to overcome them.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51592,"journal":{"name":"Language Sciences","volume":"113 ","pages":"Article 101778"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145571353","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The epistemic marking of questions in Colloquial Jakartan Indonesian","authors":"Rika Mutiara","doi":"10.1016/j.langsci.2025.101755","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.langsci.2025.101755","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study aims to expand our understanding of epistemic marking in marked questions in Colloquial Jakartan Indonesian. It focuses on the use of the discourse marker <em>dong</em> in both polar and content questions, based on data from the Child Language Data Exchange System (CHILDES). Additionally, it examines the co-occurrence of <em>dong</em> and <em>ya</em> in polar questions. The marker <em>dong</em> signals speakers' recognition of their own limited knowledge and the hearer's greater authority on the matter. Furthermore, it indicates that speakers intentionally present their questions as the result of reconstructing their understanding up to the moment of speaking. When <em>dong</em> co-occurs with <em>ya</em> in polar questions, it reflects the speakers' invitation for the hearers to confirm conclusions they have synthesized based on prior information. This combination suggests a stronger speaker commitment to the presupposed information.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51592,"journal":{"name":"Language Sciences","volume":"113 ","pages":"Article 101755"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145050483","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Translation as a form of language activism: an ecolinguistic perspective","authors":"Nevena Manić","doi":"10.1016/j.langsci.2025.101770","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.langsci.2025.101770","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This conceptual review emerges from a recognition that ecolinguistics and translation studies are both concerned with language's role in shaping human and environmental future yet remain insufficiently theorized in their interconnection. The study proposes an integrative framework that positions translation as a form of ecolinguistic activism, mapped onto two distinct paradigms: eco-translation, which emphasizes discourse-level ecological awareness, and eco-translatology, which focuses on systemic adaptation within ecological contexts. The first section outlines the ecological turn in linguistic theory and its implications for understanding language as a site of activism. The analysis then turns to translation, examining its potential to support ecological values. Afterwards, case studies in endangered language revitalization and digital translation activism illustrate how translators engage with ecological concerns through terminology development, orthographic adaptation, and collaborative practice. The final section considers the ethical tensions posed by AI-mediated translation technologies and reflects on how ecological principles might inform future approaches to translation. Rather than offering prescriptive solutions, further inquiry is invited into the role of translation in advancing linguistic diversity and ecological awareness.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51592,"journal":{"name":"Language Sciences","volume":"113 ","pages":"Article 101770"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145363062","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Language, skills, deixis and indexicality – their roles and interactions","authors":"James McElvenny","doi":"10.1016/j.langsci.2025.101775","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.langsci.2025.101775","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":51592,"journal":{"name":"Language Sciences","volume":"113 ","pages":"Article 101775"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145466089","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"On the elusive nature of AGENT and agentive diagnostics: lessons from causee","authors":"Zhuosi Luo","doi":"10.1016/j.langsci.2025.101773","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.langsci.2025.101773","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper explores the nature of AGENT and agentive diagnostics commonly employed in linguistic research by investigating the thematic interpretation of the causee. It argues that the concept of AGENT, a central category in linguistic analysis, is elusive and multifaceted, drawing on both linguistic and philosophical perspectives. The study highlights a tension between oversimplified linguistic explanations of agency and the more complex, nuanced insights offered by philosophy. Through a case study of the cross-linguistic non-agentive interpretation of the causee—an understudied event participant in agency literature—and its varying compatibility patterns with nearly twenty diagnostics in Teochew, an underexplored Southern Min language, this paper distinguishes between grammatical AGENT and intuitive AGENT. It challenges the traditional view that agent-oriented modifications universally target a single, monolithic agentive property, arguing instead that agency is a complex, multi-faceted phenomenon. Ultimately, the paper advocates for a cross-disciplinary approach that integrates insights from both linguistics and philosophy, offering a more comprehensive understanding of how agency is encoded in language and conceptualized in cognition.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51592,"journal":{"name":"Language Sciences","volume":"113 ","pages":"Article 101773"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145519974","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The use of “whose” with nonhuman animals: an ecolinguistic exploration","authors":"Chenghao Zhu ,&nbsp;George M. Jacobs ,&nbsp;Xiaobao Cao ,&nbsp;Ingrid A. Gavilan Tatin ,&nbsp;Lingling Li ,&nbsp;Hailong Li ,&nbsp;Meng Huat Chau","doi":"10.1016/j.langsci.2025.101772","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.langsci.2025.101772","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Ecolinguistics explores the role of language in shaping the life-sustaining interactions among humans, other species, and the physical environment. However, research on how language is used to describe, relate to, or frame nonhuman animals remains limited, particularly from a diachronic perspective. This study constitutes the first attempt to examine the use of the possessive pronoun <em>“whose”</em> with nonhuman animals through an ecolinguistic lens. The investigation involves an analysis of entries in reference works (i.e., dictionaries, grammar references both for scholars and for learners, and writing manuals) and a diachronic corpus study based on the Corpus of Historical American English (1820–2019). Results show that while the use of “whose” with nonhuman animals is considered acceptable in most reference works, some sources still describe it as normally used only with humans. The corpus analysis reveals that over the past two centuries, the frequency of “whose” with nonhuman animals has declined noticeably but has maintained a consistent proportion relative to the overall use of “whose,” regardless of referent. Changes in the use of “whose” with selected words representing different animals were explored. Overall, this study suggests that the use of “whose” with nonhuman animals reflects enduring anthropocentric perspectives; yet it also shows promising changes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51592,"journal":{"name":"Language Sciences","volume":"113 ","pages":"Article 101772"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145466090","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}