36.3698, Calls: Lexis - Journal in English Lexicology - "Special Issue: From Transfer to Linguistic Innovation: Lexical Creativity Dynamics in Additional Language Learners’ Interlanguage (Ln)" (Jrnl)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-36-3698. Mon Dec 01 2025. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 36.3698, Calls: Lexis - Journal in English Lexicology - "Special Issue: From Transfer to Linguistic Innovation: Lexical Creativity Dynamics in Additional Language Learners’ Interlanguage (Ln)" (Jrnl)

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Date: 29-Nov-2025
From: Denis Jamet-Coupé [denis.jamet-coupe at univ-lyon3.fr]
Subject: Lexis - Journal in English Lexicology - "Special Issue: From Transfer to Linguistic Innovation: Lexical Creativity Dynamics in Additional Language Learners’ Interlanguage (Ln)" (Jrnl)


Journal: Lexis - Journal in English Lexicology
Issue: From Transfer to Linguistic Innovation: Lexical Creativity
Dynamics in Additional Language Learners’ Interlanguage (Ln)
Call Deadline: 30-Apr-2026

Lexis – Journal in English Lexicology will publish its 28th issue in
2027. It will be edited by Cédric Brudermann (Cnam, France), Muriel
Grosbois (Cnam, France) and Cédric Sarré (Sorbonne Université, France)
and will deal with the topic “From Transfer to Linguistic Innovation:
Lexical Creativity Dynamics in Additional Language Learners’
Interlanguage (Ln)”.
CFP in English : https://journals.openedition.org/lexis/9869
CFP in French: https://journals.openedition.org/lexis/9876
Don’t hesitate to submit an abstract to Lexis if you’re interested.
Context and Rationale:
In the learning of so-called “additional” languages – here understood
as any language learned after the first language (L1), whether an L2,
L3 or Ln – cross-linguistic transfer phenomena constitute fundamental
cognitive mechanisms. While such transfers may in some cases
facilitate acquisition (Fries [1945]; Larsen-Freeman [1986]), they can
also lead to productions that deviate from the standard usage of the
target language (Odlin [1989]; Jarvis & Pavlenko [2008]; Ellis
[2015]).
This is particularly true of lexis, a component of the linguistic
system which is highly permeable to linguistic contact. The learner’s
mental lexicon indeed brings together lexical units from all the
languages they know or are learning (Boulton [1998]). Thus, examples
in French such as “*Ils veulent gagner more, euh” (more used for
plus), “*Les gens sont involvés” (used for impliqués – influence of
the English word involved) (Dewaele [1998]) or “*Gérard dit que ses
baggages sont déjà registrés” (used for ses bagages sont déjà
enregistrés – influence of the English words baggage and registered)
or “*un homme avec le nez sanguine...” (for le nez en sang – influence
of the English words bloody nose) (Cosereanu [2010]) illustrate
strategies of lexical approximation that are cognitively coherent,
even if normatively divergent.
However, such forms are far from random. Rather, they reveal the
internal logic of interlanguage systems, the processes of analogy (and
sometimes reconstruction) and the mechanisms of “nativization”
(Andersen [1983]), understood as the conscious or unconscious transfer
of lexical, syntactic or phraseological patterns from previously known
languages into productions in Ln (Odlin [1989]; Jarvis & Pavlenko
[2008]).
    1 To avoid terminological overlap, “lexical creativity” is here
distinguished both from simple code-m (...)
Accordingly, what have been labelled “transfer errors” (James [1998]),
“lexical calques” (Granger [1996]) or “nativization errors” (Ringbom
[1987, 2001]) show that a process of lexical creativity – referring to
the motivated, structured and sometimes innovative production of units
that are absent from or non-conventional in native usage1 – is at work
in Ln learning. As such, while cross-linguistic transfers were once
viewed as parasitic “interferences,” they are now increasingly
understood as specific cases of transcoding markers that offer a
privileged observatory for examining the influence of previously known
languages on interlanguage development (Cosereanu [2010]).
Thus understood, lexical creativity in Ln unfolds along a continuum
ranging from transfer to innovation. Far from being mere “anomalies”
the non-standard forms observed reflect the dynamism of interlanguage
systems, the influence of source languages and the compensatory
strategies that learners use to achieve communicative goals. In this
sense, Ln lexical creativity invites broader reflection on lexical
norms, acceptability, linguistic validity and learners’ creative
potential (Dewaele [1998]).
To foster reflection on these still underexplored issues, Lexis
invites contributions for a special issue devoted to lexical
creativity in additional language learner productions.
Theoretical Orientations and Aims of the Issue:
Lexical creativity in Ln reflects a productive tension between norm
and innovation situated at the crossroads of several disciplinary
fields:
 - Contrastive linguistics, which examines structural differences
between linguistic systems (Lado [1957]; König & Gast [2012]);
 - Language and culture pedagogy, which attends to lexical
acquisition, learner representations and the development of
interlanguage (Selinker [1972]; Ellis [2015]);
 - Cognitive lexicology, which investigates the mechanisms involved in
lexical conceptualization and association (Boers & Lindstromberg
[2008]; Tyler [2012]);
 - Corpus linguistics, which seeks to identify recurrent patterns in
learner production (Granger et al. [2015]);
 - Natural language processing and artificial intelligence, which open
new perspectives for annotating, detecting and automatically
classifying lexical errors (Crossley & McNamara [2012]; Zhai et al.
[2021]; Meurers [2020]; Schlechtweg et al. [2020]).
Drawing on these approaches, this issue aims to bring together
theoretical, empirical, methodological and applied perspectives to
better understand the role and functions of lexical creativity in
additional language acquisition. In particular, it seeks to examine
the lexical transformations characteristic of interlanguage and to
explore the boundaries between error, variation and innovation.
Possible Orientations
Submissions may rely on a wide range of learner corpora (written or
oral, specialized or general, institutional or informal), including:
 - Data collected in instructional contexts (tests, assignments,
classroom interactions);
 - Digital productions (forums, blogs, social media, learner journals,
etc.);
 - Existing corpora (e.g., ICLE, LANG-8, Cambridge Learner Corpus);
 - Corpora automatically annotated or processed through supervised
learning or AI-based tools (Kwako et al. [2022]; Qiu et al. [2020]).
Analyses may also focus on learners with diverse profiles according
to:
 - Their first language(s);
 - Their proficiency levels in the target language(s) (CEFR or other
frameworks);
 - The genres produced (narrative, argumentative, dialogic, etc.);
 - The contexts in which they are exposed to the target language
(immersion, formal instruction, digital environments, etc.).
Suggested Areas of Analysis:
This issue seeks to open an interdisciplinary space for exploring
transcoding markers that reveal lexical creativity in Ln, viewed as
traces of cognitive activity and indicators of linguistic innovation.
Contributions may include, but are not limited to, the following
areas:
1. Typology of lexical transformations and creative transfers
 - Orthographic transfers, borrowings, lexical calques, deviant
collocations, semantic false friends, innovative unattested forms,
etc.;
 - Creative strategies of lexical appropriation through literal
translation, semantic extension, misuse of lexicographic resources or
overgeneralization;
 - Recurrent error characteristic of specific L1 learner communities.
2. Contrastive analysis and interlinguistic modelling
 - Lexical and morphosyntactic influences of L1 on Ln;
 - Cross-linguistic comparisons of lexical patterns;
 - Interactions between languages in multilingual contexts.
3. Corpora and automatic processing of learner productions
 - AI-assisted methods for detecting, annotating and classifying
lexical errors;
 - Use of pre-trained language models (BERT, GPT, T5, etc.) for
analyzing learner vocabulary;
 - (Semi-)automatic annotation and supervised learning for identifying
recurrent lexical patterns;
 - Quantitative and qualitative analysis based on annotated corpora;
 - Contribution of AI-powered tools to the study of learner lexis.
4. Lexical pedagogy and remediation
 - Pedagogical use of lexical errors;
 - Development of teaching materials that mobilise learner creativity;
 - Effects of tasks, contexts and teaching/learning modalities on
cross-linguistic transfer and lexical creativity;
 - Integration of learner variation in teacher education;
 - Automated feedback and formative assessment (Jones et al. [2022];
Huang et al. [2022]; Klebanov & Madnani [2020]).
5. Error, creativity and linguistic innovation
 - The linguistic status of “error”: deviance, variation or
innovation?
 - Contribution of interlanguage to emerging non-native varieties
(e.g., World Englishes);
 - Reflections on norms, acceptability and intelligibility;
 - The role of lexical creativity and linguistic variation in
communicative competence.
Submission Languages:
Proposals may be submitted in English or French.
For full list of references, see CfP URL above.
How to Submit:
Please clearly indicate the title of the paper and include an abstract
between 3,000 and 6,000 characters (including spaces) as well as a
list of relevant key-words and references. All abstract and paper
submissions will be anonymously peer-reviewed (double-blind peer
reviewing) by an international scientific committee composed of
specialists in their fields. Papers will be written preferably in
English or occasionally in French.
Manuscripts may be rejected, accepted subject to revision, or accepted
as such. There is no limit to the number of pages.
Submissions (abstracts and articles, in Word document) will be
submitted via the journal’s submission platform. If you encounter any
problem, please send a message to Lexis.
Deadlines:
November 2025: Call for papers
April 30 2026: Deadline for submitting abstracts to Lexis via the
journal’s submission platform
July-August 2026: Evaluation Committee’s decisions notified to authors
November 15 2026: Deadline for submitting papers via the journal’s
submission platform (Guidelines for submitting articles:
https://journals.openedition.org/lexis/1000
November and December 2026: Proofreading of papers by the Evaluation
committee
January 2027: Authors’ corrections
February 1 2027: Deadline for sending in final versions of papers

Linguistic Field(s): Applied Linguistics
                     Language Acquisition
                     Sociolinguistics

Subject Language(s): English (eng)




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