Álvaro S. Octavio de Toledo y Huerta

Esme Winter-Froemel

Discourse Traditions are a key concept of diachronic Romance linguistics. The present manual aims to establish this approach at an international level by assembling contributions that introduce its theoretical foundations, discuss connections with alternative approaches of text and discourse analysis, show the relevance of Discourse Traditions for the history of Romance languages, and explore possibilities for future applications of the concept.

Manual of Discourse Traditions in Romance

Angelika Zirker

In conjunction with the first volume of the series, this collection of essays analyzes techniques and basic traditions of wordplay in various communicative situations and offers new perspectives on the dynamics of wordplay as an interface phenomenon.

Perspectives linguistiques et littéraires

Enjeux du jeu de mots

Alex Demeulenaere

The book series is dedicated to the study of the multifaceted dynamics of wordplay as an interface phenomenon. The contributions aim to bring together approaches from various disciplines and present case studies on different communicative settings, inluding everyday language and literary communication, and thus offer fresh perspectives on wordplay in the context of linguistic innovation, language contact, and speaker-hearer-interaction. La collection vise à analyser la diversité de la dynamique du jeu de mots en tant que phénomène d’interface. Les contributions réunissent les approches de différentes disciplines et présentent des études de cas de situations de communication variées, incluant tant le langage quotidien que la communication littéraire. Ainsi, elles offrent de nouvelles perspectives sur le jeu de mots dans le contexte de l’innovation linguistique, du contact linguistique, et de l’interaction locuteur-interlocuteur. Editorial Board: Salvatore Attardo (Texas A&M University Commerce, USA), Dirk Delabastita (Université de Namur, Belgium), Dirk Geeraerts (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium), Raymond W. Gibbs (University of California, Santa Cruz, USA), Alain Rabatel (Université de Lyon 1 /ICAR, UMR 5191, CNRS, Université Lumière-Lyon 2, ENS-Lyon, France), Monika Schmitz-Emans (Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany), Deirdre Wilson (University College London, UK)

Jeux de mots, textes et contextes

Wordplay can be seen as a genuine interface phenomenon. It can be found both in everyday communication and in literary texts, and it can fulfil a range of functions – it may be entertaining and comical, it may be used to conceal taboo, and it may influence the way in which the speaker’s character is perceived. Moreover, wordplay also reflects on language and communication: it reveals surprising alternative readings, and emphasizes the phonetic similarity of linguistic signs that also points towards relations on the level of content. Wordplay unravels characteristics of literary language in everyday communication and opens up the possibility to analyze literary texts from a linguistic perspective. The first two volumes of the series The Dynamics of Wordplay therefore aim at bringing together contributions from linguistics and literary studies, focusing on theoretical issues such as basic techniques of wordplay, and its relationship to genres and discourse traditions. These issues are complemented by a series of case studies on the use of wordplay in individual authors and specific historical contexts. The contributions offer a fresh look on the multifaceted dynamics of wordplay in different communicative settings.

Authors, Contexts, Techniques, and Meta-Reflection

Wordplay and Metalinguistic / Metadiscursive Reflection

Sabine Arndt-Lappe

Angelika Braun

Claudine Moulin

The creation of new lexical units and patterns has been studied in different research frameworks, focusing on either system-internal or system-external aspects, from which no comprehensive view has emerged. The volume aims to fill this gap by studying dynamic processes in the lexicon – understood in a wide sense as not being necessarily limited to the word level – by bringing together approaches directed to morphological productivity as well as approaches analyzing general types of lexical innovation and the role of discourse-related factors. The papers deal with ongoing changes as well as with historical processes of change in different languages and reflect on patterns and specific subtypes of lexical innovation as well as on their external conditions and the speakers’ motivations for innovating. Moreover, the diffusion and conventionalization of innovations will be addressed. In this way, the volume contributes to understanding the complex interplay of structural, cognitive and functional factors in the lexicon as a highly dynamic domain.

Linguistic Innovation, Morphological Productivity, and Ludicity

Expanding the Lexicon

Verena Thaler

Cultures and Traditions of Wordplay and Wordplay Research

This volume focuses on realisations of wordplay in different cultures and social and historical contexts, and brings together various research traditions of approaching wordplay. Together with the volume DWP 7, it assembles selected papers presented at the interdisciplinary conference The Dynamics of Wordplay / La dynamique du jeu de mots (Trier, 2016) and stresses the inherent dynamicity of wordplay and wordplay research.

Eline Zenner

Ad Backus

This volume serves to illustrate the promising insights to be gained when cross-fertilizing Cognitive Linguistics and contact linguistics, which each hold crucial ingredients to an encompassing study of contact-induced variation and change. Combining the study of the individual mind with the study of shared context, bridging research on experience and perspective with research on variation and change, and tackling the methodological complexities that this empirical approach to mental categorization entails, help us determine how the meaningful units that make up language are categorized and structured in the bi- and multilingual mind and, by extension, in any human mind. Together, the ten papers in this volume reveal the complexities of the interaction between usage, meaning and mind in contact-induced variation and change, which we hope will inspire future research exploring the possibilities of the cross-fertilization we have labeled Cognitive Contact Linguistics.

Esme Winter-Froemel

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