Languages (Journal)

de Swart, H. (Editor)
Le Bruyn, B. (Editor)

Activity: Publication peer-review and editorial work › Editorial activity › Academic

Description

guest editor special issue Tense and Aspect across languages

Period	2022
Type of journal	Journal
ISSN	2226-471X
Degree of Recognition	International

Keywords

tense
aspect
cross-linguistic semantics

Documents & Links

Variation across languages has always fascinated linguists, but in the past, it has mostly been investigated in form-related subdisciplines (phonology, morphology, syntax). The idea that variation in form has an impact on meaning makes it possible to connect typological insights to universal principles underlying formal semantics (Matthewson & von Fintel 2008) and to analyze patterns of form-meaning relations across languages (de Swart 2010, Legendre et al. 2017). With new methodologies such as parallel corpus research, psycholinguistic experiments and innovative field work, it has become possible to provide solid empirical ground for formal approaches to meaning across languages. Recent insights in the ways languages grammaticalize temporal reference and event structure underscore the need to dive deeper into cross-linguistic variation (Binnick 2010). The current state of the art in the literature motivates the focus of this special issue on the cross-linguistic semantics of tense and aspect.