Title of the Theme Issue
Diachronic Construction Grammar: Current Challenges and New Directions
Guest Editors
Karen Sampaio B. Alonso (UFRJ)
Martin Hilpert (Université de Neuchâtel)
Taísa Peres de Oliveira (UFMS)
Scope of the Call
This thematic issue of Cadernos de Linguística invites submissions that address current theoretical, empirical, and methodological developments in Diachronic Construction Grammar (DCG).
Diachronic Construction Grammar has become a central framework for understanding language change as a phenomenon grounded in cognition and language use. By integrating perspectives from Cognitive Linguistics, Corpus Linguistics, and Historical Linguistics, DCG provides powerful tools for investigating how constructions emerge, evolve, and are reinterpreted over time. Research in the field has contributed to advancing the analysis of processes such as constructionalization, routinization, and schematization, shedding light on the cognitive mechanisms that underlie patterns of linguistic change.
Despite these advances, important challenges remain. In particular, scholars continue to debate how best to model language change as a dynamic process resulting from the interaction of cognitive mechanisms, social factors, and usage patterns. This thematic issue seeks to bring together studies that address these challenges and that propose new theoretical perspectives, empirical findings, or methodological innovations for the study of diachronic change in constructional approaches.
We welcome contributions that investigate topics such as:
– theoretical developments in Diachronic Construction Grammar
– empirical studies of constructional change across languages
– corpus-based approaches to the evolution of constructions
– cognitive mechanisms involved in constructionalization and change
– interactions between usage, cognition, and social factors in language change
– methodological innovations for studying constructional change
– interfaces between DCG and related frameworks in historical and cognitive linguistics
By bringing together diverse perspectives, this issue aims to advance the understanding of how constructions emerge, stabilize, and transform across time, contributing to ongoing discussions about the cognitive and usage-based foundations of linguistic change.
Submission Procedures
– Submissions must be made directly through the journal’s system:
https://cadernos.abralin.org/index.php/cadernos/login
– All manuscripts must follow the journal’s guidelines:
https://cadernos.abralin.org/index.php/cadernos/about/submissions
– All submissions will undergo open peer review, in accordance with the journal’s open science policies.
Timeline
– April 30, 2026: Deadline for publication of the preprint on SciELO Preprints
– May 30, 2026: Deadline for manuscript submission
