I am glad to announce that I will be in charge of the English version of the Think FWD Factory website, an open-plan coworking space located in Cogoleto, near Genoa, Italy. I am excited to take on this new challenge, as I have always been interested in business language and the use of English to reach out to new customers! Stay tuned!
Category: English language
UKCLC 2020 slides available
At the 7th United Kingdom Cognitive Linguistics Conference – UK-CLC2020, Cristiano Broccias and I gave a presentation entitled ‘The material V (NP) Ving construction within the V & Ving network.’ Download the slides! 😉 The online event was hosted by the University of Birmingham on July 27-29, 2020.
2019 conference slides available
The presentations Cristiano Broccias and I jointly gave in Germany in the Summer of 2019 are eventually available (sorry for the delay!). Read and download our contribution to the 52nd Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea- SLE52 (Leipzig, August 21-24, 2019) and the talk we gave at the 8th Biennial International Conference on the Linguistics of Contemporary English – BICLCE2019 (Bamberg, September 26-28, 2019)! 😉
A co-authored chapter out now
The book The Diachrony of Ditransitives, edited by Chiara Fedriani and Maria Napoli, has recently been released on Mouton De Gruyter. The volume comprises contributions on the evolution of ditransitive constructions in several languages. It includes a chapter on the history of the English dative and benefactive alternations co-authored by Cristiano Broccias and myself. Have a look at the synopsis and the contents of the book! 😉
One more year at the University of Genoa
My fellowship at the University of Genoa has been renewed for another year. As a consequence, my research project ‘English construction grammar(s): Between description and cognition’ is entering a new phase. In 2020, my research will focus on the simultaneity network in (the history of) English. Stay tuned!
‘Exploring Language(s)’ video 02 is out now!
Why it is time to accept that the English language today is a diversity policentric entity, and no variety is inherently superior to (or more real than) any other.
The new video is out now! Watch it in the language you prefer! 😉
🇬🇧 The myth of ‘real English’:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UcB-IDEQT4
🇪🇸 El mito del ‘verdadero inglés’:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3DZjHDlfig
🇮🇹 Il mito del ‘vero inglese’:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIs_IGqT-0c
The links to all YouTube videos are listed in reverse chronological order here.
First YouTube video out now!
The ‘Exploring Language(s)’ YouTube channel is officially kicking off! 🙂
A short video introducing my YouTube channel ‘Exploring Language(s)’ is now available. You can watch it in your favorite language by clicking on the relevant link below! 😉 All my YouTube videos will also be stored in the apposite section of the website. 🙂
🇬🇧 ‘What is Exploring Language(s)?’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rq_1zJPFmdI
🇪🇸 ‘Qué es Exploring Language(s)?’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWcjvfPNMro
🇮🇹 ‘Che cos’è Exploring Language(s)?’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UrfxcFSP80
This video is just a short introduction. Honestly, I know that the result is not perfect: it is quite evident that I was not at ease in front of the camera. Moreover, the recording and editing of a simple video took me days and was quite stressful. However, I am thrilled to launch the channel. It is the beginning of a new project that is making me rediscover the joy of learning something new from scratch through a process of trial and error. In my next videos, I will do my best to get better and better results. 🙂
Reviewing a new book on grammar
I will soon receive Masaru Kanetani’s new book ‘Causation and reasoning constructions’ (John Benjamins Publishing) and review it for the LINGUIST List. The book deals with the expression of causal relations and reasoning processes, which in some languages is realized by the same connective word (e.g., English ‘because,’ Japanese ‘kara’). I am looking forward to reading it. Stay tuned!
Time to ditch the ‘language purity’ myth and enjoy diversity
I have just published an opinion article on the Spanish website Globedia. It deals with the longstanding myth that some language varieties are inherently better than others, illustrating, in particular, the case of English and, to a lesser extent, Spanish. It is, for the most part, a translation of this post into Spanish. Read it online or download the PDF! Please comment and let me know what you think! 🙂
Enrico Torre 