Conference selection

SLE 2024

Helsinki, 21-24 August 2024

John Benjamins will be present at SLE 2024.
Check out our promotional material and discount order form through the links below. Or come and browse our books at the exhibit. If you wish to talk about our books, your work, and possible publishing projects please drop by or get in touch with acquisition editor Ymke Verploegen at ymke.verploegen at benjamins.nl.

Check out our selection of top titles for this conference!


Showing all 36 titles.

TSL 130
Cover not available

Antipassive

Typology, diachrony, and related constructions

Edited by Katarzyna Janic and Alena Witzlack-Makarevich

This book provides a comprehensive treatment of the morpho-syntactic and semantic aspects of the antipassive construction from synchronic, diachronic, and typological perspectives. The nineteen contributions assembled in this volume address a wide range of aspects pertinent to the antipassive construction, such as... full description
March 2021. vii, 645 pp.
LA 281
Cover not available

Auxiliary Selection in Italo-Romance

A Nested-Agree approach

Irene Amato

This book proposes a new solution to the long-standing puzzle of auxiliary selection in Romance languages, in particular Italian. The following questions are addressed: why the perfect auxiliary appears in the two forms be and have within a single language, what drives this distribution, and how cross-linguistic data... full description
November 2023. xvi, 264 pp.
TSL 134
Cover not available

Caused Accompanied Motion

Bringing and taking events in a cross-linguistic perspective

Edited by Anna Margetts, Sonja Riesberg and Birgit Hellwig

This volume investigates the linguistic expression of directed caused accompanied motion events, including verbal concepts like BRING and TAKE. Contributions explore how speakers conceptualise and describe these events across areally, genetically, and typologically diverse languages of the Americas, Austronesia and... full description
May 2022. viii, 437 pp.
HCP 74
Cover not available

A Cognitive Perspective on Spatial Prepositions

Intertwining networks

Maria Brenda and Jolanta Mazurkiewicz-Sokołowska

A Cognitive Perspective on Spatial Prepositions: Intertwining networks is devoted to the issue of the relation between language and thought approached from the perspective of spatial relations encoded by four equivalent spatial prepositions – English to, German zu, Polish do and Russian к. Regarding these prepositions... full description
October 2022. xiii, 242 pp.
LA 284
Cover not available

Competition in Word-Formation

Edited by Alexandra Bagasheva, Akiko Nagano and Vincent Renner

This volume focuses on a number of interrelated issues in the theorizing and interpretation of morphological rivalry, including the differences between a semasiological and an onomasiological approach to competition phenomena in word-formation, the scope of such phenomena (micro-level rivalry between individual... full description
May 2024. vi, 352 pp.
BCT 122
Cover not available

Construction Grammar across Borders

Edited by Tiago Timponi Torrent, Ely Edison da Silva Matos and Natália Sathler Sigiliano

Since its foundation in the 1980's, Construction Grammar has been crossing the traditionally imposed borders. From superimposed levels of analysis to the lexicon-grammar continuum, the constructionist approach to language has been built by, quoting Charles Fillmore, "the insistence on seeing specific grammatical... full description
July 2022. v, 174 pp.
CAL 36
Cover not available

A Constructional Account of Verb-Forming Suffixation

Jacqueline Laws

The range of meanings expressed by derivatives formed by the attachment of the four principal verb-forming suffixes - ate, - en, - ify and - ize has been the subject of extensive analysis for over two decades. From a descriptive perspective, the research reported in this volume constitutes the most comprehensive... full description
September 2023. xxiv, 393 pp.
CAL 37
Cover not available

Constructional Approaches to Nordic Languages

Edited by Evie Coussé, Steffen Höder, Benjamin Lyngfelt and Julia Prentice

This volume presents eight studies of linguistic phenomena in Nordic languages (notably Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish) from a construction grammar perspective. The contributions both deepen and widen the focus of construction grammar applied to Nordic languages by dealing with a variety of topics, such as the... full description
November 2023. v, 278 pp.
CAL 34
Cover not available

Constructions in Spanish

Edited by Inga Hennecke and Evelyn Wiesinger

Constructions in Spanish is the first book-length English-language volume in the field of usage-based and Cognitive Construction Grammar dedicated exclusively to Spanish. The contributions investigate a wide range of constructions from both a synchronic and a diachronic perspective, cutting across morphology, syntax,... full description
July 2023. vi, 409 pp.
BCT 123
Cover not available

Development of Tense and Aspect Systems

Edited by Jadranka Gvozdanović

Linguistic construal of time lies at the center of language and language use; it is also one of the cognitive foundations of culture. The focus of the papers in this volume is on historical developments of genetically different aspect and tense systems across continents, with contributions on the Sogeram languages of... full description
August 2022. v, 202 pp.
SLCS 232
Cover not available

Different Slants on Grammaticalization

Edited by Sylvie Hancil and Vittorio Tantucci

This volume on grammaticalization focuses on new theoretical and methodological challenges underpinning language change. It provides new approaches and insights deepening our understanding of the cognitive, pragmatic, and socio-cultural mechanisms that trigger the formation and the change of grammars. In this volume,... full description
July 2023. vi, 284 pp.
LA 280
Cover not available

Differential Object Marking in Romance

Towards microvariation

Edited by Monica Alexandrina Irimia and Alexandru Mardale

Differential marking as applied to direct objects has long been discussed as one of the characterizing traits of many Romance languages. There is, however, wide consensus that a detailed investigation into the nature of this phenomenon raises numerous challenges both at the empirical and theoretical level. Many... full description
November 2023. viii, 350 pp.
SLCS 227
Cover not available

Discourse Phenomena in Typological Perspective

Edited by Alessandra Barotto and Simone Mattiola

This book aims at investigating discourse phenomena (i.e., linguistic elements and constructions that help to manage the organization, flow, and outcome of communication) from a typological and cross-linguistic perspective. Although it is a well-established idea in functional-typological approaches that grammar is... full description
March 2023. vi, 439 pp.
Z 240
Cover not available

English Sentence Constructions

Marjolijn H. Verspoor, Tim Kassenberg, Merel Keijzer and Gregory J. Poarch

English Sentence Constructions departs from a usage-based theoretical perspective in which all language units -- which we refer to as constructions -- have both a meaning and form, and context is all-important in determining the function and form of these constructions. As a... full description
August 2022. 261 pp.
BCT 121
Cover not available

The Evolution of Pronunciation Teaching and Research

25 years of intelligibility, comprehensibility, and accentedness

Edited by John M. Levis, Tracey M. Derwing and Murray J. Munro

Inspired by Murray Munro and Tracey Derwing’s 1995 seminal study of intelligibility, comprehensibility, and accentedness, this book revisits the insights of their original research and presents subsequent studies extending this work to new ways of understanding second language speech. By rejecting the nativeness... full description
June 2022. v, 234 pp.
HCP 76
Cover not available

Existential Constructions across Languages

Forms, meanings and functions

Edited by Laure Sarda and Ludovica Lena

This volume reflects the centrality of the existential construction in current linguistic research and offers studies that both consolidate and challenge established research agendas. It addresses (i) a variety of constructions related to ‘prototypical’ existentials (including the have-possessive construction), and... full description
July 2023. x, 352 pp.
SLCS 234
Cover not available

Free Variation in Grammar

Empirical and theoretical approaches

Edited by Kristin Kopf and Thilo Weber

Recent years have seen a growing interest in grammatical variation, a core explanandum of grammatical theory. The present volume explores questions that are fundamental to this line of research: First, the question of whether variation can always and completely be explained by intra- or extra-linguistic predictors, or... full description
October 2023. vi, 352 pp.
SLCS 233
Cover not available

Granularity in the Verbalization of Events and Objects

A cross-linguistic study

Katerina Stathi

The study departs from the observation that in expressing ideas, some languages encode more details than others. It investigates whether languages encode events and/or objects at a coarse-grained (e.g., put, glass) as opposed to a fine-grained (e.g., lay, wine glass) level systematically. The level of detail is termed... full description
August 2023. xviii, 536 pp.
CILT 363
Cover not available

Keys to the History of English

Diachronic linguistic change, morpho-syntax and lexicography

Edited by Thijs Porck, Moragh S. Gordon and Luisella Caon

This volume brings together contributions selected from papers delivered at the 21st International Conference on English Historical Linguistics (ICEHL, Leiden 2021). The contributions deal with various aspects of English language across time and geographical space, shedding light on both long-term developments and... full description
April 2024. vii, 235 pp.
TSL 132
Cover not available

Linguistic Categories, Language Description and Linguistic Typology

Edited by Luca Alfieri, Giorgio Francesco Arcodia and Paolo Ramat

Few issues in the history of the language sciences have been an object of as much discussion and controversy as linguistic categories. The eleven articles included in this volume tackle the issue of categories from a wide range of perspectives and with different foci, in the context of the current debate on the nature... full description
July 2021. vi, 424 pp.
TSL 131
Cover not available

The Linguistics of Olfaction

Typological and Diachronic Approaches to Synchronic Diversity

Edited by Łukasz Jędrzejowski and Przemysław Staniewski

This volume presents novel cross-linguistic insights into how olfactory experiences are expressed in typologically (un-)related languages both from a synchronic and from a diachronic perspective. It contains a general introduction to the topic and fourteen chapters based on philological investigation and thorough... full description
April 2021. xiii, 481 pp.
SLCS 231
Cover not available

Micro- and Macro-variation of Causal Clauses

Synchronic and Diachronic Insights

Edited by Łukasz Jędrzejowski and Constanze Fleczoreck

This collection presents novel insights into the micro- and macro-variation of causal clauses from a cross-linguistic perspective. It contains a general introduction to the topic setting the scene and nine chapters based on data from Dutch, German, English, Icelandic, Chinese, and Japanese. Topics discussed in the... full description
March 2023. vii, 353 pp.
SLCS 226
Cover not available

On Spoken French

An Ashby Reader

William J. Ashby

This scholarly edition invites us to reconsider our assumptions about the French language, by showcasing the oeuvre of one of the pioneers of diachronic Spoken French corpus linguistics, William J. Ashby, and the ground-breaking findings to come out of his influential Tours corpora (1976 & 1995), including two... full description
March 2023. xiv, 534 pp.
SLCS 235
Cover not available

Predication in African Languages

Edited by James Essegbey and Enoch O. Aboh

This book discusses patterns of predication and their grammatical and semantic implications in a variety of African languages. It covers several prominent topics about predication in the languages, including locative predication, expressions of tense, aspect, and mood in relation to verbal complexes and verb... full description
Expected June 2024. xi, 340 pp. + index
SLCS 230
Cover not available

Reconnecting Form and Meaning

In honour of Kristin Davidse

Edited by Caroline Gentens, Lobke Ghesquière, William B. McGregor and An Van linden

This volume is intended as a celebration of Kristin Davidse’s work and its impact within the broad traditions of cognitive, functional and usage-based grammars. Reflecting this wide functionalist lens, the contributions develop ideas central to Neo-Firthian theories of grammar (in particular, Semiotic Grammar and... full description
February 2023. vii, 305 pp.
SLCS 228
Cover not available

Reference

From conventions to pragmatics

Edited by Laure Gardelle, Laurence Vincent-Durroux and Hélène Vinckel-Roisin

This volume provides an innovative approach to the referential process thanks to its focus on the relationship between conventions and discourse pragmatics. It brings together a cross-section of current research on referential conventions and pragmatic strategies, in a number of different fields (formal and... full description
February 2023. vi, 349 pp.
SLCS 229
Cover not available

Serbian Clitics

Jasmina Milićević

Clitics, those “funny little words” like English contracted future tense and pluperfect tense/conditional mood markers (’ll and ’d) or French pronominal objects (le ‘him’, la ‘her’, lui ‘to him/her’, etc.), have long been a source of fascination for linguists. Lacking an inherent stress that characterizes... full description
February 2023. xxiii, 166 pp.
HCP 77
Cover not available

Space, Time, World

Michael Fortescue

Although major cognitively based studies of SPACE and TIME in language have appeared in terms of “Frames of Reference”, these do not extend to a wide selection of the world’s languages, nor do they combine SPACE and TIME in the overarching concept of WORLD, which has its own corresponding frames of reference. The aim... full description
February 2024. viii, 223 pp
LA 279
Cover not available

The Spanish and the Portuguese Present Perfect in Discourse

Lukas Müller

This monograph presents a theoretical and empirical study of the Spanish and the Portuguese Present Perfect (PP). The innovative claim is that the two tense forms operate in the field of tension between temporal quantification and temporal reference. Based on this approach, it presents the first in-depth study that... full description
February 2023. xviii, 276 pp.
CAL 35
Cover not available

Structural Priming in the Grammatical Network

Tobias Ungerer

This book brings together research in cognitive linguistics and experimental psychology to construct a psychologically plausible account of grammar as a mental network. To explore the organisation of this network, the author examines evidence from structural priming, which occurs when speakers’ processing of a... full description
July 2023. xiii, 236 pp.
HCP 75
Cover not available

Time Representations in the Perspective of Human Creativity

Edited by Anna Piata, Adriana Gordejuela and Daniel Alcaraz Carrión

In recent years, the study of the conceptualization of time has seen a considerable growth, providing a basis for exploring the cognitive foundation of metaphor. But if metaphorical representations of time are established in the cognitive system, how are they manipulated when humans are engaged in creative expression?... full description
November 2022. viii, 245 pp.
TSL 133
Cover not available

The Typology of Physical Qualities

Edited by Ekaterina Rakhilina, Tatiana Reznikova and Daria Ryzhova

What is it like? – This is often the first question we ask about any object, and it is typically answered with adjectives: old, smooth, pointed, narrow, etc. Characteristics of things around us is a fundamental aspect of how we conceptualize the physical world, regardless of when or where we live – and regardless of... full description
May 2022. vi, 339 pp.
LA 283
Cover not available

The Unity of Movement

Evidence from verb movement in Cantonese

Tommy Tsz-Ming Lee

Displacement (of linguistic expressions) is a ubiquitous phenomenon in natural language. In the generative tradition, displacement is modelled in terms of transformation, or more precisely, movement, which establishes dependencies among syntactic constituents in a phrase structure. This book probes the question... full description
April 2024. xxii, 214 pp.
CILT 364
Cover not available

Unlocking the History of English

Pragmatics, prescriptivism and text types

Edited by Luisella Caon, Moragh S. Gordon and Thijs Porck

This volume brings together contributions selected from papers delivered at the 21st International Conference on English Historical Linguistics (ICEHL, Leiden 2021). The chapters deal with aspects of language use throughout the history of English, including efforts to prescribe and regulate language in texts that... full description
April 2024. viii, 253 pp.
BCT 124
Cover not available

Visual Metaphors

Edited by Réka Benczes and Veronika Szelid

Whenever we think about the world – including its concrete and abstract entities – we typically see a series of so-called mental images in front of our eyes that aid us in everyday problem solving and navigating ourselves in the world. Visual metaphors, similarly to their linguistic counterparts, largely build on such... full description
September 2022. vi, 284 pp.
LA 282
Cover not available

Wh-island Effects in Chinese

A formal experimental study

Xu Chen

This book examines three controversial generalizations concerning wh-island effects in Chinese: argument and adjunct asymmetry, subject and object asymmetry, and D-linked and non-D-linked asymmetry. Experiments under the factorial definition of island effects reveal that: (1) both argument and adjunct wh-in-situ are... full description
February 2024. xix, 173 pp.