My reviews of Kanetani (2019) and Koch & Reimann (2019) are now online

My reviews of the following books have just been published on the LINGUIST List website:

  • Masaru Kanetani’s (2019) monograph ‘Causation and reasoning constructions’ (John Benjamins). Read it online or download the PDF! 🙂
  • Christian Koch and Daniel Reimann’s (2019) edited volume ‘As variedades do português no ensino do português língua não materna’ (Narr Francko Attempte). Read it online or download the PDF! 🙂

Presenting at ICFLL in Lisbon

I have been accepted for a presentation at the 1st International Conference on Foreign Language Learning (ICFLL), which will be held at Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal on June 1-2, 2020. My contribution will be entitled ‘Aprender Português através de uma pequena tela? Sobre o uso de tecnologias móveis no aprendizado de idiomas estangeiros.’ As usual, I will post the slides shortly after the conference. Stay tuned! 😊

‘The syntax of West Iberian languages’ workshop

‘The syntax of West Iberian languages: Philological and sociolinguistic aspects’ workshop at ICLC9

The 9th International Contrastive Linguistics Conference will be held in Santa Margherita Ligure, Italy, on May 14-15, 2020. As a part of this conference, I will organize the small workshop The Syntax of West Iberian Languages: Philological and Sociolinguistic Aspects. The topic of the workshop is very broad, and contributions are accepted on any aspect of the syntax of the western Iberian languages, as long as they are treated in a contrastive perspective (for the sake of consistency with the orientation of the Conference); therefore, the authors will be free to choose the specific topic they prefer.

The workshop has two objectives. On the one hand, it aims to bring together academics who are interested in the study, preservation and promotion of the regional and minority languages ​​spoken in the Iberian Peninsula. On the other hand, it aims to draw attention to the rich linguistic diversity that characterizes the west Iberian space, now endangered by the diglossic, asymmetric environment, which tends to favor the use of Spanish (or Portuguese, in the case of Miranda do Douro) in every context. I also believe that it may be important that events of this type are also organized outside the Iberian Peninsula.

Paradoxically, to facilitate the attendance of all the participants of the Conference, the languages ​​of the workshop will have to be limited to English and Spanish. However, I plan to edit a volume including the contributions of the workshop, possibly as a special issue of a journal of linguistics or Romance philology. In this case, it is not excluded that articles are admitted in the languages ​​that constitute the subject of the workshop. I also plan to record some interviews to upload to my YouTube channel about languages, as I did last August in Leipzig with Professor Augusto S. Da Silva, who spoke about the situation of Portuguese as an international language.

Hosting ICLC9 in Genoa

The 9th International Contrastive Linguistics Conference will be organized by our department!

The Ninth International Contrastive Linguistics Conference (ICLC9) will be organized by the Department of Modern Languages of the University of Genoa and held at Villa Durazzo, in Santa Margherita Ligure, on May 14-15, 2020.

We invite contributions comparing two or more languages or (synchronic/diachronic) varieties of the same language from a functional-cognitive perspective. Descriptive, philological, or sociolinguistic contributions will also be considered. We welcome workshop proposals (max. five speakers per workshop). Papers may be presented in English, Italian, German, French, or Spanish.

We plan to publish a couple of volumes collecting selected contributions.

The call of papers and more details can be found in the conference website and any inquiries should be directed to the conference e-mail address.

 

 

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!

Invited talk at Universidade Católica Portuguesa

On October 14, 2019, I had the pleasure to be invited by Professor Augusto Soares da Silva to present at a small workshop on Cognitive / Construction Grammar at Universidade Católica Portuguesa, in Braga, Portugal, along with Dr. Joana Jacinto and Dr. Maitê Moraes Gil. Download the slides of my talk (in Portuguese), entitled ‘Alguns (potenciais) pontos cegos ontológicos e epistemológicos no quadro teórico da Gramática das Construções’! 😉

Reviewing a new book on the teaching of Portuguese as a second language

I will soon receive the book ‘As variedades do português no ensino do português língua não materna’ edited by Christian Koch and Daniel Reimann  (Narr Francke Attempto) and review it for the LINGUIST List. The book is a collection of studies on the role of language varieties in the practice of teaching Portuguese as a second language. I can’t wait to receive my review copy and start reading the book!

Exploring Language(s) – Video 07 replaced by a PDF file

Do you know your smartphone can be a precious aid to learn a language?

Due to a technical issue, the new video will be replaced by a PDF file. Download the text in the language you prefer! 😉

🇬🇧 An introduction to your smartphone as a language learning tool

🇪🇸 Una introducción a tu smartphone como herramienta para el aprendizaje de idiomas

🇮🇹 Un’introduzione al tuo smartphone come strumento per l’apprendimento delle lingue

Videos will be back on October 30, 2019.