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In this paper we look at the case of coronal palatalization [t d s z] > [ʧ ʤ ʃ ʒ] in both Early Modern English (EModE) and Present-day English (PDE) with the aim to determine its major phonological factors (such as the context, triggers, etc.) and to explain the existence of numerous palatalized/unpalatalized variants found in different accents of contemporary English, e.g. [ʧuːn]/[tuːn]/[tjuːn]. It is argued here that the key to understanding the operation of palatalization in contemporary English is the change in the parameter setting which allows/disallows for the merger of two antagonistic elements within a single melodic expression – the *|U I| constraint. This Middle English (ME) innovation guarantees the coronals, to the exclusion of labials and velars, the right to undergo full palatalization. Moreover, the historical perspective adopted in this paper sheds some light not only on the linguistic micro-variation evident in contemporary accents of English, i.e. the existence of [ʧuːn]/[tuːn]/[tjuːn] variants, but also on the absence of front vowels from the group of potential palatalization triggers. It is pointed out that the evolution of the ME diphthong [iu] > [juː], a process which bears a direct responsibility for the later coronal palatalization and the growth of the heterogeneous forms in PDE, is a natural reaction to the *|U I| constraint.

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This corpus linguistics study offers a diachronic perspective on masculine and feminine address terms by analyzing the frequencies of the pairs “dude”/”dudette” and “bro”/”sis” in the 325 million-word TV Corpus. Results show an increase of the frequency of “dude” and “bro”, a quasi-absence of “dudette”, and a stable but low frequency of “sis”. They suggest that “dude” and “bro” have taken on generic meanings, while the usage of “sis” remains kinship-specific. They also show that familiarizers are more frequent in American English than in British and Canadian English, and that their frequency in the TV Corpus is genre-dependent, with animated series and reality television shows being more conducive to their use.

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This paper sets forth a quantitative analysis of expressions of epistemicity, a category covering the expression of commitment to the information transmitted, in a corpus of 25 threads extracted from British discussion forums. Epistemicity is divided into three categories: epistemic modality, evidentiality and factivity, each divided into subcategories. The results are analysed in contrast to comparable corpora of newspaper opinion articles and political speeches. The analysis uncovers significant differences in the expression of epistemicity in the three genres, in terms of both frequency and distribution across categories, the subcategory ‘cognitive attitude’ being a case in point. Epistemicity in the discussion forums is also proved to display features of orality and routinisation.

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The paper discusses figurative conceptualizations of nations, countries, and institutions as either a container, a person, a sinking ship, a fabric, or hell in media discourse on the European migrant crisis. Applying Steen et al.’s (2010) three-dimensional model of metaphor analysis, we analyze a specific set of metaphorical linguistic expressions, which are inextricably related in the segments of the real discourse on migration, to discuss their rhetorical power and communicative function. The aim of this paper is to describe and identify cases when these are used as perspective-changing devices to influence readers’ opinion on an important issue such as migration.

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As there is lack of a research synthesis on metaphor in tourism discourse up to date, the paper offers a novel contribution by summarising empirical literature on metaphor use in print and digital tourism promotional materials and identifying the existing research gaps. The review uncovers that figuration is largely underexplored in tourism promotion literature revealing only general functions and specific examples of metaphors. The paper also presents preliminary results from ongoing research on metaphor use in English e-promotional tourism discourse. Thereby, the paper provides new insights into metaphor as a multifaceted phenomenon integrating discursive, conceptual, and cultural elements and contributes to our understanding of the role of metaphor in cross-cultural communication.

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Despite all the attempts by ESL and EFL learners to attain (near-)native proficiency, many phonological, lexical and spelling mistakes still occur in any L2 learning environment (Huwari 2019, 31). This paper aims to investigate the key English pronunciation difficulties, both segmental (on the level of speech sounds) and suprasegmental (rhythm, stress, and juncture), of Egyptian learners of English, in a corpus of audio and/or video recordings of English conversation and presentation skills classes by Egyptian university students who are also native speakers of Egyptian Colloquial Arabic (ECA). The project involves both contrastive analysis (of the phonological systems of English, Egyptian Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic) as well as error analysis. While the significance of contrastive analysis lies in helping EFL teachers predict the problematic aspects (Al-Saqqaf and Vaddapalli 2012, 56), error analysis would provide them with the actual problems encountered by the learners and the extent of their seriousness.

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English Medium Instruction (EMI) consists in delivering content in English to students who are non-native speakers of English. With English becoming a supranational and intercultural tool of professional and academic communication, EMI is being introduced by various entities in higher education at a rapid pace in different parts of the world. The focal point of the present research on EMI is the collection of data provided by teachers and students regarding their attitudes toward EMI. Along with the immediate spread, numerous doubts have emerged that need to be addressed in order to render EMI more effective and accessible. This paper presents the current literature on the subject of EMI in higher education, where it is primarily present, and aims to recognize and provide an overview of the challenges that teachers and students face in education in which EMI is incorporated. The challenges may be identified in three main areas, that is at the level of policy and social processes, at the level of teacher’s agency, and finally at the level of students’ perspective. Some of the challenges may be fixed with basic policy changes; however, others, such as the factor of translanguaging, the methodology of establishing linguistic standards, or the process of transition between particular stages of education, require more research into the subject of EMI.

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The paper presents Polish equivalents of William Shakespeare’s food vocabulary based on The Merry Wives of Windsor. The analysis entails all Polish versions of the comedy, both its nineteenth-century renditions and contemporary post-war readings. The research aims to demonstrate how the lexical choices of Polish authors affect the interpretation of the play; in particular, it seeks to answer the question of how the imagery and symbolism of Shakespeare’s food vocabulary were altered in the process of translation.