36.3947, Calls: Languages - "(Not-)At-Issueness" (Jrnl)

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-36-3947. Tue Dec 23 2025. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 36.3947, Calls: Languages - "(Not-)At-Issueness" (Jrnl)

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Date: 18-Dec-2025
From: Maria Esipova [masha.esipova at nyu.edu]
Subject: Languages - "(Not-)At-Issueness" (Jrnl)


Journal: Languages
Issue: (Not-)At-Issueness
Call Deadline: 28-Feb-2026

Guest Editors:
Todor Koev, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev,
tkoev at scarletmail.rutgers.edu
Maria Esipova, Bar-Ilan University, masha.esipova at nyu.edu
Special Issue Information:
The concept of at-issueness revolves around the intuition that the
information conveyed by an utterance is segmented into main (at-issue)
content and peripheral/background (not-at-issue) content. This
distinction has played a key role in understanding various linguistic
phenomena, like presupposition (e.g., Karttunen & Peters 1979),
apposition (e.g., Potts 2005), epistemic modality (e.g., Gillies & von
Fintel 2010), evidentiality (e.g., Murray 2014), speech reports (e.g.,
Bary & Maier 2021), expressives (Potts 2007), social meaning (Smith et
al. 2010), and others. It has also been fruitfully applied beyond
language proper; for instance, to gestures (e.g., Ebert & Ebert 2014),
pictures (Esipova 2021), emojis (Grosz et al. 2023; Maier 2023), etc.
Despite this richness, no uniform theoretical notion of at-issueness
has emerged (Koev 2018), with different construals centering on the
Question Under Discussion (Simons et al. 2010), common ground
negotiation (cf. Farkas & Bruce 2010), and discourse coherence (Hunter
& Asher 2016).
To further advance the debate, we particularly welcome contributions
that address the following topics:
- Theoretical work on the concept of at-issueness, including its links
to familiar phenomena like embedding, projection, anaphora, focus,
illocutionary force, and bias, as well as less-studied phenomena like
reporting, quotation, and point of view.
- Contributions that explore crosslinguistic variation or less
familiar languages, illustrating novel linguistic phenomena that draw
contrasts in at-issueness.
- Experimental contributions providing fresh data to address open
questions around the concept of at-issueness.
- Analyses of the at-issue status of content beyond language proper,
such as pictures, emojis, and gestures.
While the scope of the Special Issue is broadly construed, we expect
all contributions to be theoretically grounded, informing and
advancing further the concept of at-issueness as understood in current
research.
We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors
initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200 words
summarizing their intended contribution. Please send this to the Guest
Editors (tkoev at scarletmail.rutgers.edu and masha.esipova at nyu.edu).
Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editors for the purposes of
ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue, and full
manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer-review.
Manuscript Submission Information:
The deadline for submitting the full manuscript is February 28, 2026.
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering
and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to
go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the
deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed.
Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon
as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor
be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference
proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a
double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other
relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the
Instructions for Authors page. Languages is an international
peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a
manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in
this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers
should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's
English editing service prior to publication or during author
revisions.

Linguistic Field(s): Pragmatics
                     Semantics




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