Given the limitations of ecolinguistics’s existing paradigms, this article proposes a construct of an ecolinguistic continuum and expounds its ontological elements and characteristics such as integrality, diversity, dynamicity, balance, relatedness, sustainability, coordination, and evolvability. Based on this construct, we propose a multi-dimensional alignment continuum model (MACM) via lexicogrammar, discourse, and context verified in an experiment that took the explicit/ideational-implicit/pragmatic markers continuum as its examples. The findings are as follows: 1) The experimental group with MACM had significant gains in listening comprehension and was superior to the comparison group. 2) Significant differences were found between the two groups in the outcomes of spoken discourse markers; the experimental group had better implicit markers output than the comparison group. Although the experimental group is more native-like, the development of the explicit-implicit markers continuum characterized both groups. These findings verified the validity and rationality of the MACM and provided strong evidence for the ecolinguistic continuum view and eco-contextualized pedagogical implications for L2 development.

Currently most studies on metaphors in idioms are based on Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT), which is unable to interpret the emergent meaning adequately. However, the Emergent Metaphor Theory (EMT) can fill this gap and offer a new way for studies on idioms. This study based on EMT indicates that idioms cannot be analyzed entirely as syntactic constructions, nor can they be wholly understood as highly entrenched instances of metaphorical mappings. Highly figurative idioms cannot be understood within the bounds of the syntactic schema alone; their rich properties in meaning can be dug out only when both the syntactic schema and conceptual schema are taken into consideration. This provides a new perspective for the study on the cognitive mechanism of idioms.

Based on the discussion of functional expansion of Finnish partitive marker, this paper proposes to distinguish mighty categories’ expansions between intra-domain and extra-domain functions. The Finnish partitive marker can be expanded to express unbounded quantity, indefinite, imperfective and negative meanings. The expansion to quantitative and referential categories reflects an intra-domain expansion and the expansion to aspectual and modal categories an extra-domain expansion. The extra-domain functional expansion is constrained by 1) the distance between the original and expanded categories, 2) the distance between the linear arrangements of language units, and 3) the limitations of the language inventory. As a result, the expansion faces difficulty in occurrence and low degree of cross-linguistic reproducibility; meanwhile, it plays a more important role in the shaping of the language inventory and language characteristics, which should be given attention to at the theoretical level.

There is a semantic continuity between the sequential and the causal. The causal sentences extrapolated from the sequential markers are affected by the corresponding syntactic and semantic restrictions. Focusing on causal sentences indicated by the sequential marker te in Japanese, this paper intends to elaborate that the iconic proximity principle exists behind the competitive correlation of te and node kara, and the different structural distances between te, node kara and the main sentence are iconic motivated index of their conceptual distances. The observation on them shows the typological significance in comparison with studies of Turkish and Mongolian languages. It also indicates that the highly subjective construal in Japanese can enhance and regulate the perspective of te causal sentences from the perspective of language individuality. The paper also discusses the importance of the integrative perspective of speakers in causal sentences using te and the major integration methods.

Using online grammaticality judgment tasks and choosing Chinese English learners of different English proficiency as subjects, this paper explores the processing mechanism of English binomials with different frequency and lexical semantic relations of component words. The results show that 1) there is a frequency effect on the processing of binomials of English learners; 2) the lexical semantic relations of component words have a moderating effect on the frequency effect. In binomials of antonym relations, the subjects’ reactions to high-frequency ones are faster and the error rate is lower than low-frequency ones; 3) the moderating effect of the lexical semantic relations of component words is influenced by the learners’ English proficiency level. The study shows that binomials are psychologically realistic to some extent, which supports the hypothesis of the usage-based view on L2 acquisition. However, the lexical semantic relations of component words and the learner’s English proficiency level affect the storage of the chunks in the mental lexicon.

The theory of language embodiment (Pavlenko 2007) suggests that the lack of related embodied experience in L2 acquisition leads to an inferior processing and representation of the emotional information in L2 words. Based on this theory, two experiments were designed to explore whether there was still a processing advantage of emotional words in Chinese for advanced Chinese-English bilinguals, and whether the embodied experience would facilitate the acquisition of L2 words. Experiment 1 used the classical emotional Stroop effect paradigm to investigate the processing advantage of emotional words in Chinese for advanced English learners. The result indicated that such an effect was indeed found among the participants. Experiment 2 applied embodied experience to the process of the participants’ English learning, and found that such manipulation did facilitate the emotional words processing and representation of L2 word learning. The paper also discussed implications of how to integrate embodied experience into L2 acquisition in classroom practice.

The study probes into the cross-linguistic influence on Cantonese-English bilingual children’s interpretation of subject and object relative clauses (RCs). Data show that bilingual children perform significantly better on subject RCs, though monolingual children perform as well in subject RCs as in object RCs. The results of error analyses indicate that bilingual children were accurate in assigning thematic roles in object RCs, but unable to select accurately subject RCs as the head referent because both Cantonese and English allow SVO order, contradictory to the object RC analysis. Our data verify Yip & Matthews’ (2007) argument that cross-linguistic influence was due to word order overlap and extend the observation to older children at the group level in comprehension. The two systems of bilingual children have significant interaction in comprehension, even after early childhood. Besides, our regression analyses confirm the importance of dominant language in cases of individual children.

Though second language (L2) writing research has undergone rapid development, some heated discussions in international publications do not seem to help solve the problems in China. By analyzing the nexus of international discussions and our domestic situation, the present paper identifies research space in L2 writing studies at home. International discussions include: 1) The role of the five-paragraph essay in the teaching of L2 writing; 2) Language problems in English-as-an-Additional-Language researchers’ international publications; 3) The nexus of writing development and language development; 4) Awareness of voice/identity/stance in L2 writing; and 5) Teacher feedback research and practice. Some critical thoughts in this paper might have implications for L2 writing research, teaching and teacher development in China.

Based on a self-built parallel corpus of simultaneous interpreting, this study, starting from the perspective of target language, attempts to describe the use of 4-word chunks within the concept of “coupled pairs” proposed by Toury (2012) and the structural classification of chunks by Biber et al. (2004). Our study finds that: 1) Of the 4-word chunks produced by simultaneous interpreters, noun and prepositional phrase fragments (NP/PP) account for the largest proportion, followed by verb phrase fragments (VP) and dependent clause segments (DC); 2) Simultaneous interpreters resort to correspondence, addition and substitution to cope with 4-word chunks, with correspondence being the primary pattern; and 3) The patterns for 4-word chunks of different structures also vary. While NP/PP rely mostly on correspondence, VP and DC also opt for addition and substitution, in addition to correspondence. It is expected that the findings can shed light on future training of simultaneous interpreters in Chinese context.

Ever since its introduction into the translation research at home in 2004, thick translation has been regarded as a translation strategy or just a phenomenon. However, this paper holds that the perspective from translation itself has undervalued the epistemic and theoretical significance of thick translation. Accordingly, the paper sets out to elaborate the cognitive value and conceptual operations of thick translation in meaning construction and intercultural communication from four aspects: 1) Filling in the gap between source and target in the idealized cognitive model for more accurate understanding; 2) Triggering off the cognitive frame for reference point; 3) Connecting the mental access to the implicit information behind the translation; 4) Specifying the context for the identification of the proper meaning encoded. The paper also demonstrates that the application of the principles and models of Cognitive Linguistics will shed light on classic issues in translation so as to upgrade theory building.

The Unaccusative Hypothesis (Perlmutter 1978) initiated four decades ago within the framework of the Relational Grammar proposed a split of intransitives into two subtypes, the unergative and the unaccusative, which has triggered an extensive exploration in Generative Grammar ever since. The split of intransitives demonstrates by nature mixed properties of a language grammar. The related cross-typological linguistic research abroad in the past four decades falls into three primary fields: syntactic and semantic descriptions and interpretations, psycho-cognitive processing, and neurolinguistic and patholinguistic justifications. But here in China our interest is still primarily limited to the theoretical construal with occasional L2 processing, while neurolinguistic and patholinguistic areas are left untouched. This paper revisits what has been done so far and addresses some controversial issues as well. More importantly, we intend to point out that related research based on the corpus and big data seems to be largely neglected, not to mention machine learning. The paper suggests that it is high time for us to be cross-disciplinary.

This paper analyzes the research articles of language testing studies published between 2008 and 2018, using CiteSpace, a visualization tool in scientometrics. Research data were retrieved from 10 highly-cited international academic journals via the Web of Science Core Collection. The analysis focused on the most productive countries/regions/authors, high-impact references and highly cited authors, as well as the research fronts and hotspots in language testing studies. The results demonstrate: 1) The most productive regions are English-speaking countries, though recent years witnessed a significant increase in research output in Asian countries; 2) High-impact references and highly cited authors mainly focus on test validation, social dimensions of language testing, language assessment literacy and performance assessment; 3) Validity remains one of the most important research topics; language assessment and learning will be more closely connected; 4) Technology will continue to play a prominent role in language assessment. The findings of this study have significant implications for language testing research in China.