Call for papers

BCGL 18/Expressivity 3: Morphosyntactic Variation and Expressivity

The Center for Research in Syntax, Semantics, and Phonology (CRISSP) of KU Leuven invites abstracts for the 18th edition of the Brussels Conference on Generative Linguistics (BCGL18), which is at the same time the third edition of the Expressivity workshop. The event is to be held on 10–11 December 2026 in Brussels.

Expressive meaning is a type of meaning which signals the speaker’s perspective on the utterance, or the speaker’s emotion regarding the state of affairs being referred to. It was long considered not to be a part of the grammatical system (see Corver 2016 for detailed discussion). However, in the last three decades, an increasingly growing body of work has shown that the way languages convey expressive meaning is far more structured and systematic than previously thought (Kaplan 1999, Klamer 2002, Potts 2007, Corver 2016, Heim and Wiltschko 2016, Gutzmann 2015, Gutzmann 2015, Wiltschko 2021, Wiltschko 2024, Saab 2026a, among many others). Starting from Kaplan (1999) and particularly Potts (2007), much insight has been gained on the formal semantic properties of expressive language. At the same time, the body of research on expressivity at the syntax‐semantics interface and the formal analyses of expressive phenomena in syntax are also steadily growing (see e.g. the Oxford Handbook of Expressivity, Gutzmann and Turgay 2026).

Compared to syntax and semantics, formal approaches to expressive morphology are more scarce (see e.g. Steriopolo 2008, Steriopolo et al. 2023, Corver 2016). Corver (2016) has proposed that expressivity is triggered by functional morphemes appearing in an unexpected form or structural position (both within complex words and within clauses). His analysis has recently been developed further in research on expressive morphology in contact varieties of Dutch (Cavirani‐Pots and Grondelaers 2026) and on inclusive gender in Spanish (Saab 2026b). In other subfields of linguistics, particularly in typological and non‐generative approaches to morphology, much research has been done on so‐called ‘evaluative’ morphology (see e.g. the contributions in Grandi and Körtvélyessy 2015), which is a subset of what could be considered expressive morphology. Typological research into expressive morphology is still expanding, as evidenced by e.g. many of the contributions in Williams (2022).

Against this backdrop, a line of research that is still very much underdeveloped is morphosyntactic variation in expressivity, both within the same language and cross‐linguistically (a few exceptions being Klamer 2002, Gutzmann and Turgay 2015, Kovtun 2025, Trotzke and Giannakidou 2025). Ritter and Wiltschko (2023) explore morphosyntactic variation in expressive language by re‐evaluating previous analyses of ‘evaluative morphology’, and by proposing different underlying structures for similar expressive morphological phenomena in different languages, which allows for a better understanding of cross‐linguistic variation found in those expressive phenomena (see also Steriopolo 2008 and Steriopolo et al. 2023). Wiltschko (2024) furthermore recently advocated for an emotive variant of her Universal Spine Hypothesis (Wiltschko 2014), namely the Emotional Spine Hypothesis. This enables her to link the way in which sentences are incrementally constructed to the way complex emotions are constructed, while also being able to account for the internal complexity of emotional experiences. This enables generative approaches to language variation to interact with and expand into other fields, such as that of affective sciences (an interdisciplinary subfield of psychology which includes the study of emotions and attitudes; see Gross and Barrett (2013) for an overview) and appraisal theory (cognitive psychology, see e.g. Clore and Ortony 2008, Scherer 1999), as well as socio‐ and psycholinguistics (e.g. Cavirani‐Pots and Grondelaers 2026).

In this pivotal moment in the research on expressive morphosyntax, BCGL18 welcomes presentations that address these and related topics. They include, but are not limited to, questions such as the following:

  • Which structural positions for expressive elements do we see in syntax, and are these mirrored at the subwordlevel? To what extent is a unified theory of expressivity able to account both for expressivity in syntax and in morphology?
  • Is cross‐linguistic variation in expressivity structured in the same way as non‐expressive cross‐linguistic variation?
  • Do agglutinative vs. fusional languages structurally show different patterns in their expressive morphology, and if so, how can we formally model this?
  • Which social, cognitive or psychological factors influence production and/or perception of emotion triggered by expressive constructions?
  • How can diachrony inform us about the synchronic patterns of expressivity found in a given language? Are all forms of expressive morphology recycled morphemes from other categorical domains (Corver 2016), or can a language also innovate expressive constructions without recycling material?

Besides these questions, we also welcome papers in which a single morphological or syntactic expressive phenomenon is formally analyzed.

Invited speakers

Organizing Committee

  • Cora Cavirani‐Pots (KU Leuven–CRISSP)
  • Edoardo Cavirani (Masaryk University–CRISSP)
  • Jeroen van Craenenbroeck (KU Leuven–CRISSP, Meertens Institute)
  • Fien Croux (KU Leuven–CRISSP)
  • Francesco Peverelli (KU Leuven–CRISSP)
  • Guido Vanden Wyngaerd (KU Leuven–CRISSP)
  • Anastasiia Vyshnevska (KU Leuven–CRISSP)
  • Anne Breitbarth (UGent)

Abstract Guidelines

Abstracts should not exceed two pages, including data, references, and diagrams. Abstracts should be typed in at least 11‐point font, with one‐inch margins (letter‐size; 8.5 by 11 inch or A4) and a maximum of 50 lines of text per page. Abstracts must be anonymous and submissions are limited to max. 2 per author, at most one of which is single‐authored. Only electronic submissions will be accepted. Please submit your abstract using https://openreview.net/group?id=BCGL/2026/Conference.

Important dates

  • First call for papers: 24 April 2026
  • Second call for papers: 1 June 2026
  • Abstract submission deadline: 31 August 2026
  • Notification of acceptance: early October 2026
  • Conference: 10–11 December 2026

Conference webpage: https://www.crissp.be/bcgl-18-morphosyntactic-variation-and-expressivity/

References

    • Cavirani‐Pots, C. and S. Grondelaers (2026). Expressive morphology in Curaçaoan Dutch. Talk given at the workshop ‘Expressivity: social variation and processing’ in March 2026 in Bochum, Germany.
    • Clore, G. L. and A. Ortony (2008). Appraisal theories: How cognition shapes affect into emotion. In M. Lewis, J. M. Haviland‐Jones, and L. F. Barret (Eds.), Handbook of Emotions, pp. 628–642. New York: Guilford Press.
    • Corver, N. (2016). Emotion in the build of Dutch. Derivation, augmentation and duplication. Tijdschrift voor Nederlandse Taal‐ en Letterkunde 132, 232–275.
    • Grandi, N. and L. Körtvélyessy (Eds.) (2015). Edinburgh Handbook of Evaluative Morphology. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
    • Gross, J. J. and L. F. Barrett (2013). The emerging field of affective science. Emotion 13, 997–998.
    • Gutzmann,D.(2015). Use‐conditional meaning: Studies in multidimensional semantics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    • Gutzmann, D. and K. Turgay (2015). Expressive intensifiers and external degree modification. Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics 17, 185–228.
    • Gutzmann, D. and K. Turgay (Eds.) (2026). The Oxford Handbook of Expressivity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    • Heim, J. and M. Wiltschko (2016). The syntax of confirmationals. A neo‐performative analysis. In G. Kaltenböck, E. Keizer, and A. Lohmann (Eds.), Outside the clause. Form and function of extra‐clausal constituents, pp. 303–340. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
    • Kaplan, D. (1999). The meaning of ouch and oops: Explorations in the theory of meaning as use. Unpublished manuscript.
    • Klamer, M. (2002). Semantically motivated lexical patterns: A study of Dutch and Kambera expressives. Language 78, 258–286.
    • Kovtun, O. (2025). Evaluative grammar and non‐standard comparatives: a cross‐linguistic analysis of Ukrainian and English. Languages 10, 1–21.
    • Potts, C. (2007). The expressive dimension. Theoretical linguistics 33, 165–197.
    • Ritter, E. and M. Wiltschko (2023). Evaluative morphology: Universals and variation. In P. Ackema, S. Bendjaballah, E. Bonet, and A. Fábregas (Eds.), The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Morphology, pp. 1–33. Wiley.
    • Saab, A. (2026a). Expressivity and syntax. In D. Gutzmann and K. Turgay (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Epressivity, pp. 168–203. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    • Saab, A. (2026b). Inclusive gender in Spanish. Subverting the heteronormative taxonomy by expressive means. Unpublished manuscript.
    • Scherer, K. R. (1999). Appraisal Theory. In T. Dalgleish and M. Power (Eds.), Handbook of Cognition and Emotion, pp. 637–663. New York: Wiley & Sons.
    • Steriopolo, O. (2008). Form and function of expressive morphology: A case study of Russian. Ph. D. thesis, University of British Columbia, Vancouver.
    • Steriopolo, O., G. Markopoulos, and V. Spyropoulos (2023). Parameters of variation in the syntax of expressive size suffixes: Case studies of Russian, German, Spanish, and Greek. In J. P. Williams (Ed.), Expressivity in European Languages, pp. 361–392. Cambridge University Press.
    • Trotzke, A. and A. Giannakidou (2025). Exclamation, intensity, and emotive assertion. Theoretical linguistics 51, 1–51.
    • Williams, J. P. (Ed.) (2022). Expressivity in European Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    • Wiltschko, M. (2014). The universal structure of categories: Towards a formal typology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    • Wiltschko, M. (2021). The grammar of interactional language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    • Wiltschko, M. (2024). Emotions do not enter grammar because they are constructed (by grammar). Language Under Discussion 7, 1–62.