Abstract submission deadline: 8 February 2026

Language evolution and change have long attracted the interest of linguists. Among the various phenomena discussed in the literature, the concept of “grammaticalization” remains central, at least since Antoine Meillet first coined the term in 1912 to describe “l’attribution du caractère grammatical à un mot jadis autonome” (‘the attribution of grammatical character to an erstwhile autonomous word’; Meillet 1912: 131). A classic example is the French negation ne…pas, where pas (‘step’) evolved into a negation marker through reanalysis and semantic bleaching, while ne became optional in speech (Hopper & Traugott 2003: 69–70).

The 20th century witnessed major advances in the discussion over grammaticalization through Kuryłowicz (1964, 1976), Benveniste (1968), and Givón (1979), and later by Hopper, Traugott, Heine, and colleagues, who established diachronic and comparative foundations with typological perspectives (Hopper & Traugott 1993[2003]; Heine & Kuteva 2002, 2005, 2007; Kuteva et al. 2019). In the last few decades, the impact of cognitive linguistics and its implementation through Construction Grammar (CxG) has become increasingly evident. Early CxG research primarily examined synchronic phenomena, with foundational studies such as Goldberg (1995) demonstrating how a construction’s syntax can produce a holistic, schematic meaning that differs from the sum of its individual lexical elements. More recent investigations (e.g. Gildea & Barðdal 2023) have aimed to transcend the conventional limits of grammaticalization research, suggesting that many grammaticalization processes can be incorporated within Diachronic Construction Grammar (DCxG) as part of a unified theory of construction development.

But language change is not only grammaticalization. It can also be understood as a multimodal process, involving prosody, gesture, and other semiotic resources that interact dynamically with linguistic form. Previous literature has demonstrated that the gradual routinization and integration of co-speech gestures into grammatical systems – such as pointing evolving into demonstrative markers or manual gestures supporting discourse markers – shows how multimodality plays a role in the emergence and adjustment of grammar (Kendon 1988; Cooperrider, Slotta & Núñez 2018). For instance, developmental studies have long shown that children rely on gesture-speech combinations to mark argument structure and discourse organization before these are fully grammaticalized in speech (Goldin-Meadow 2003; Iverson & Thelen 1999; Tomasello 2003; Morgenstern 2022). Such parallels suggest that both ontogenetic and diachronic pathways to grammar are shaped by the gradual conventionalization of multimodal cues, reinforcing the idea that grammaticalization processes should be also studied as multimodal constructional change.

Positioned between the first international conference on Grammaticalization vs Diachronic Construction Grammar (Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, October 2025; https://linguistlist.org/issues/36/2184/) and its planned second edition in France (autumn 2026), this event provides an intermediate platform for YUFE researchers interested more broadly in synchronic and diachronic approaches to language variation and change and its theoretical implications. Its goal is to create a space for dialogue among YUFE linguists interested in these areas in linguistics, encouraging discussion of how languages evolve – whether through grammaticalization, constructionalization, or other pathways of innovation – and how these processes can be observed and tested empirically, with experimental tasks or corpora (of synchronic and/or diachronic data) in English as well as in other languages.

1. Case studies on language change and variation via different approaches and theoretical frameworks (e.g. Grammaticalization vs. Diachronic Construction Grammar, cf. Gildea & Barðdal 2023; Basile & Ziegeler forthcoming; Heine et al. forthcoming).

2. Synchronic variation as evidence of ongoing change, including competition between variants, the emergence of new patterns, and the influence of social or pragmatic factors.

3. Analyses based on diverse data sources, such as historical corpora, spontaneous interaction; experimental studies, large social media corpora (Laitinen & Rautionaho 2025), podcast corpora (Coates et al. 2025), learner corpora, or under-documented languages/varieties.

4. Typological and cross-linguistic perspectives on mechanisms of grammatical and constructional innovation and diachronic/synchronic adjustment.

·         Integrate theoretical discussion with robust empirical evidence.

·         Address synchronic/diachronic variation and change across multiple linguistic domains.

·         Connect diachronic developments to real-time or apparent-time data.

The ultimate goal of this conference is to highlight the latest research in the field, showcase a broad variety of approaches, and promote the publication of an edited volume or a special issue. In doing so, it seeks to strengthen the vibrant community of linguists from the various universities participating in the YUFE network and the MultiLingYUFE project (2025–2027).

We invite submissions of abstracts up to 500 words (references excluded) to be submitted here by 8 February 2026. The outcome of the selection process will be communicated by the end of February 2026.

Format of the presentations: 20-minute talk + 10-minute discussion; presentations and discussions in English.

Organisers: Prismes/SeSyLiA (Sorbonne Nouvelle) & MultiLingYUFE.

Scientific committee: Alessandro Basile; Monika Boruta-Żywiczyńska; Marcus Callies; Astrid De Wit; Christina Gkonou; Mikko Laitinen; Eric Mélac; Aliyah Morgenstern; Mathilde Pinson; Mieke Vandenbroucke

Basile, Carmelo Alessandro & Debra P. Ziegeler. Forthcoming. Rescuing grammaticalization from construction hegemony: The evolution of the modal better. Folia Linguistica Historica 47(1).

Benveniste, E. (1968). Mutations of linguistic categories. In W. P. Lehmann & Y. Malkiel (Eds.), Directions for historical linguistics: A symposium,83–94. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Coates, Steven, Carmelo Alessandro Basile, Cameron Morin & Robert Fuchs. The Youtube corpus of Singapore English Corpora. English World-Wide.

Cooperrider, Kensy, James Slotta & Rafael Núñez. 2018. The preference for pointing with the hand is not universal. Cognitive Science 42(4). 1375–1390.

Gildea, Spike & Johanna Barðdal. 2023. From grammaticalization to Diachronic Construction Grammar. A natural evolution of the paradigm. Studies in Language 47(4). 743–788.

Givón, Talmy. 1979 [2018]. On understanding grammar. (2nd edn.). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Goldberg, Adele E. 1995. Constructions: A Construction Grammar approach to argument structure. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Goldin-Meadow, Susan. 2003. Hearing gesture: How our hands help us think. Boston: Harvard University Press, Belknap Press.

Heine, Bernd & Tania Kuteva. 2002. World lexicon of grammaticalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Heine, Bernd & Tania Kuteva. 2005. Language contact and grammatical change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Heine, Bernd & Tania Kuteva. 2007. The genesis of grammar: A reconstruction. (Studies in the Evolution of Language 9). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Heine, Bernd, Debra Ziegeler, Carmelo Alessandro Basile & Eric Mélac. Forthcoming. Grammaticalization vs. Diachronic Construction Grammar: A reappraisal. Studies in Language.

Hopper, Paul J. & Elizabeth C. Traugott. 2003[1993]. Grammaticalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Iverson, Jana M., & Esther Thelen. 1999. Hand, mouth, and brain: The dynamic emergence of speech and gesture. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 6(11–12), 19–40.

Kendon, Adam. 1988. How gestures can become like words. In Fernando Poyatos (Ed.), Cross-cultural perspectives in non verbal communication, 131–141. Hogrefe.

Kuryłowicz, J. (1964). The inflectional categories of Indo-European. Heidelberg: Winter.

Kuryłowicz, J. (1976). The evolution of grammatical categories. Esquisses linguistiques II: 38–54. Munich: Fink.

Kuteva, Tania, Bernd Heine, Bo Hong, Haiping Long, Heiko Narrog & Seongha Rhee. 2019. World lexicon of grammaticalization. 2nd edn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Laitinen, Mikko & Paula Rautionaho. 2025. Reuse of social media data in corpus linguistics. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics. Status: Epub ahead of print.

Meillet, Antoine. 1912. L’évolution des formes grammaticales. Scientia, 6(12): 384.

Morgenstern, Aliyah. 2022. Children's multimodal language development from an interactional, usage-based, and cognitive perspective. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science, 14(2), e1631 .https://doi.org/10.1002/wcs.1631

Tomasello, Michael. 2003. Constructing a language: A usage-based theory of language acquisition. Boston: Harvard University Press.