In adults, native language phonology has strong perceptual effects. Previous work has shown that Japanese speakers, unlike French speakers, break up illegal sequences of consonants with illusory vowels: they report hearing "abna" as "abuna". To study the development of phonological grammar, we compared Japanese and French infants in a…

In this paper, we explore the implications of metrolingual language practices for how we understand social inclusion. A vision of social inclusion that includes bi- and multilingual capacities may comprise an appreciation of a diversity of languages other than English, and the skills and capabilities of multilingual language users, yet it is all…

This article constitutes the first empirical assessment of methodological quality in second language acquisition (SLA). We surveyed a corpus of 174 studies (N = 7,951) within the tradition of research on second-language interaction, one of the longest and most influential traditions of inquiry in SLA. Each report was coded for methodological…

The starting hypothesis of the keynote article (KA) is that language acquisition plays an essential role in processes leading to grammatical change. Consequently, a minimal requirement, to be met by explanations of diachronic change is that they rely on mechanisms which are operative in acquisition. The KA is therefore an appeal for…

This essay updates Dell Hymes's "Report from an Underdeveloped Country" (the USA), positioning our analysis in the New Language Policy Studies. Taking up Hymes's call for comparative, critical studies of language use, we examine three cases, organizing our analysis around Hymes's questions: What "counts" as a language, a language problem, and…

As applied linguistics is mainly concerned with solving the language-related problems of laypeople, the examination of folk views constitutes an important research field and its relevance is illustrated in this issue of the AILA review. In this introductory article, we address some of the more general aspects that need to be considered in the…

This paper considers the definitions, role, and use of metaphor in adventure therapy. It provides an overview of theoretical perspectives on metaphor and the related ways in which metaphor is used in adventure therapy. Research on the use of metaphor in counselling and from neuropsychology and linguistics is applied to a model of metaphor use in…

The notion in popular linguistic discourse that French suffers from a narrow and prescriptive tradition of language policing, with the "Academie Francaise" (AF) as the central player, is frequently contrasted with an image of English as a democratic, borrowing language, better suited to its global role. This misrepresents the role of the AF in the…

To its credit, conceptual metaphor theory (CMT) has drawn significant attention to the question of what figurative language can tell us about human concepts. However, the answers CMT theorists have offered are typically unsubstantiated by the empirical evidence, and occasionally unfalsifiable. This reply to Raymond W. Gibbs Jr.'s positive…

A major revolution in the study of metaphor occurred 30 years ago with the introduction of "conceptual metaphor theory" (CMT). Unlike previous theories of metaphor and metaphorical meaning, CMT proposed that metaphor is not just an aspect of language, but a fundamental part of human thought. Indeed, most metaphorical language arises from…

We examined first language (L1) naming of common household objects in three groups of Russian-English bilinguals: early, childhood and late bilinguals. Their naming patterns were compared with those of native speakers of Russian and English, in order to detect possible second language (L2) English influence on L1 Russian naming patterns. We…

Two experiments investigated the way acoustic markers of prominence influence the grouping of speech sequences by adults and 7-month-old infants. In the first experiment, adults were familiarized with and asked to memorize sequences of adjacent syllables that alternated in either pitch or duration. During the test phase, participants heard pairs…

This study investigates the syntactic errors in speaking among an Arab L2 post-graduate student in an academic speaking context. Specifically, the objectives are to describe the syntax error patterns committed by the student while engaging in speaking and to explore the contributing factors that may affect the errors. To address these objectives,…

Political euphemism is a tool for political leaders to control information transmission. Based on some examples, this paper begins with a summary of three features which distinguish political euphemism from others. Then, it discusses its two social functions based on Austin's Speech Act Theory: 1) as political leaders' tool, political euphemism…

Lexical-tone languages use fundamental frequency (F0/pitch) to convey word meaning. About 41.8% of the world's languages use lexical tone (Maddieson, 2008), yet those systems are under-studied. I aim to increase our understanding of speech-sound inventory organization by extending to tone-systems a model of vowel-system organization, the Theory of…