36.3599, Calls: Recherches Anglaises et Nord-Américaines - "Special Issue: Wanting, Wishing, Desiring" (Jrnl)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-36-3599. Mon Nov 24 2025. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 36.3599, Calls: Recherches Anglaises et Nord-Américaines - "Special Issue: Wanting, Wishing, Desiring" (Jrnl)

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Date: 20-Nov-2025
From: Antoine Consigny [anconsig at unistra.fr]
Subject: Recherches Anglaises et Nord-Américaines - "Special Issue: Wanting, Wishing, Desiring" (Jrnl)


Journal: Recherches Anglaises et Nord-Américaines (RANAM)
Issue: Wanting, Wishing, Desiring
Call Deadline: 15-Jan-2026

This issue of RANAM (Recherches Anglaises et Nord-Américaines) aims at
exploring the expression of volition, wish and/or desire in English,
in all its manifestations. Several levels of analysis can therefore be
of interest: lexical, phraseological, syntactic, semantic, pragmatic.
It will thus be possible to study the various existing linguistic
forms expressing volition and its degrees from a lexical and/or
phraseological point of view: lexical words such as the three given in
the title, but also phrases and fixed expressions, such as “I would
like”, “I’m dying / gagging / craving for”, etc. Within this category,
it will also be possible to focus on the expression of desire or
volition through the use of euphemism (“I wouldn’t mind”, “I wouldn’t
say no to”).
The syntactic aspect may concern, among others, the possible
constructions linked to wishing or desiring: catenative constructions
(“I want to leave now”), modal auxiliary verbs (“I shan’t answer
that”, “Will you help me?”), type(s) of complementation (direct or
indirect: “I want the best for you”, “I wish you the best”, “I wish
only the best for you” but not “*I want you the best”). The different
syntactic categories of words belonging to the notional field ranging
from volition to desire may provide a productive angle: nouns, verbs,
adjectives etc. Why can we say “a desire”, “a wish” when “*?a want”
seems less easily acceptable? What is the link between “will” (noun),
“willing” (adjective), “willingly” and “will” (lexical verb, modal
verb)? In respect to the verbs of volition and desire, the scope of
negation may be the subject of a specific study. It is known that
“want” is a neg-raising verb, which implies that the scope of the
negation is the predicate and not the verb, is it the same with other
verbs of the same lexical field? What about the nouns? One may wish to
focus on the morpho-syntactic aspect.
In semantics, among the relevant topics, one can mention the
polysemous nature of words within the volition/wish/desire field:
“want” expresses volition but also lack, whereas “lack” does not
express volition; “wish” can be used in different contexts and with
different meanings, as in “best wishes” or “You wish!” (whose French
equivalent would be “Dans tes rêves!”). In that respect, a diachronic
approach may shed a welcome light on the reasons for such polysemy.
The questions of gap, lack, but also of the counterfactual could also
be looked into.
Wish or desire can also be seen as speech acts. In this line, one
could wonder whether linguistic and pragmatic meanings coincide. In
some cases, a volition/desire/wish reading is pragmatically derived
from an expression whose semantic meaning is different. On the other
hand, the expression of volition can lead to a pragmatic
interpretation close to a request or an order. It can even in some
contexts be explicitly taken as such by the co-speaker: “Your wish is
my command”.
Finally, it will be possible to consider all those questions from a
comparative perspective. One could indeed compare English and other
languages in order to see the differences but also the similarities.
Could some aspects of the field of volition/wish/desire be considered
as universals?
Submission Guidelines and Deadlines
We welcome proposals that tackle one or more of the points above, from
a theoretical or empirical point of view. Proposals should clearly
state the theoretical background, data and results obtained.
Proposals in English (about 450 words) along with a short biography
(150 mots) should be sent to Antoine Consigny (anconsig at unistra.fr)
and Stéphane Kostantzer (skostant at unistra.fr).
Call for papers: November 2025
Abstract submission deadline: 15 January 2026
Notification of acceptance: 15 February 2026
Manuscript submission deadline: 15 September 2026
Reviewing: October – November 2026
Submission of revised papers: 15 January 2027
Publication: June 2027
Selected Bibliography
AKIMOTO, (2006) ‘Rivalry among the verbs of wanting’, English
Hitsorical Linguistics, Maurizio Gotti, Marina Dossena & Richard Dury
(eds.), John Benjamins.
Bybee, Joan, Revere Perkins & William Pagliuca (1994) The Evolution of
Grammar. Tense, Aspect, and Modality in the Languages of the World.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
COTTE, Pierre (2002) ‘Le possible, le necessaire et la volonté’,
journée agrégation « les modaux »,
https://alaesfrance.wordpress.com/agregation/journee-agregation-18-12-2019
(consulté le 30/09/2024)
BORKIN, Ann (1972) ‘Two Notes on Want and Desire’, Linguistic Inquiry,
vol. 3, N° 3, MIT Press.
HAIMAN, John (1974) ‘Concessives, Conditionals and Verbs of Volition’,
Foundations of Language, vol. 11 N°3
Harkins, Jean. 1995. Desire in language and thought: A study in
cross-cultural semantics. PhD dissertation, Australian National
University.
Haspelmath, Martin (2010) ‘Comparative Concepts and Descriptive
Categories in Cross–Linguistic studies’. Language, 86 (3): 663-687.
Homer, Vincent. 2015. Neg-raising and positive polarity: The view from
modals. Semantics and Pragmatics 8. 1-88.
KHANINA, Olesya (2008) ‘How Universal is “Wanting”?’ Studies in
Language 32 (4), 818–865.
PAULIN, Catherine (2005) ‘Parcours sémantique des verbes desire et
wish: sémantisme et fonctionnement’, Travaux du CIEREC 122, Geneviève
Girard (éd), Publications de l’Université de Saint-Etienne.
POLGE, Olivier (2006) ‘La subjectivisation de want et les niveaux
notionnel, prédicatif et énonciatif’, Constructions verbales et
production de sens, Daniel Lebaud, Catherine Paulin, Katja Ploog
(Eds), Presses universitaires de Franche-Comté.
PORTNER, Paul & Aynat Rubinstein (2020) ‘Desire, belief, and semantic
composition: Variation in mood selection with desire predicates’,
Natural Language Semantics, Vol. 28, Springer.
SUGAWARA, Toshihiro (2005) ‘Desideratives and Person: Constructing a
Semantic Map’, Journal of Universal Language 6: 117–153.

Linguistic Field(s): Pragmatics
                     Semantics
                     Syntax

Subject Language(s): English (eng)




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