Studies in the Morphosyntax, Semantics, & Pragmatics of Modern-Day Guarani

Dear Colleagues,

The general purpose of this Special Issue is to delve more deeply into the grammar of modern Paraguayan Guarani and of closely related languages such as Mbyá Guarani and Correntinean Guarani. Its specific aim is to provide in-depth formal analyses of aspects of the phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics of this language which is among the most widely spoken Amerindian languages today.

Even though such an undertaking is crucial for the language standardization process that is still ongoing, until the publication of Estigarribia & Pinta (2017) there were relatively few sources of formal linguistic analyses of Guarani. And whereas a new, comprehensive Reference Grammar has recently been published by UCL Press (Estigarribia 2020), it is intended for a broad audience, and consequently does not feature in-depth studies of the various aspects of the grammar. Other than these two book-length works, there is no contemporary comprehensive collection of studies of the grammar of Paraguayan Guarani. However, scholars worldwide continue to quickly close the gaps in our knowledge of the formal properties of the language (e.g., Califa 2018; Carol & Avellana 2019; Pancheva & Zubizarreta 2019; Paz 2018; Zubizarreta & Pancheva 2017). This Special Issue will be an opportunity to gather the work of some of these and other scholars in a volume to continue making inroads towards a deeper understanding of this and related Guarani varieties. The goal of this Special Issue is, therefore, to collect state-of-the art articles on different aspects of the grammar of modern-day Guarani—more concretely, on its phonology, morphosyntax, semantics, and pragmatics.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 400-600 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send abstracts to Languages editorial office (languages@mdpi.com). Abstracts will be reviewed by the guest editor for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer-review.

Tentative completion schedule:

• Abstract submission deadline: 7 January 2021
• Notification of abstract acceptance: 31 January 2021
• Full manuscript deadline: 1 October 2021

References

Califa, Martín. 2018. "Coerción Aspectual En Guaraní Paraguayo y Otras Lenguas Sudamericanas." Lenguas Modernas (52): 73-97.

Carol, Javier Jerónimo and Alicia Mariana Avellana. 2019. "Tiempo, Evidencialidad y Miratividad En Guaraní Paraguayo y Español De Contacto: Ra'e y Había Sido." Verba 46: 11.

Dolzani, Mercedes Valeria. 2016. "La Partícula ra’e En Guaraní Mbyá. Evidencialidad y Temporalidad." Liames 16 (2) (Jul): 241.

Estigarribia, Bruno. 2020. A Grammar of Paraguayan Guarani. Grammars of World and Minority Languages Series. London, UK: UCL (University College London) Press.

Estigarribia, Bruno and Justin Pinta (Eds.). 2017. Guarani Linguistics in the 21st Century. Studies in the Indigenous Languages of the Americas (BSILA) Series. Leiden: Brill.

Pancheva, Roumyana and Maria Luisa Zubizarreta. 2019. "On the Role of Person Features in the Evidential-Temporal Connection." Canadian Journal of Linguistics 64 (4) (12): 673-708.

Paz, Silvina Marcela. 2018. "Los Verbos De Afección Psicológica Entender y Gustar en El Guaraní-Jopara: Divergencias Entre Roles Temáticos y La Estructura Argumental." Forma y Función 31 (2): 31-50.

Zubizarreta, Maria Luisa and Roumyana Pancheva. 2017. "A Formal Characterization of Person-Based Alignment: The Case of Paraguayan Guaraní." Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 35 (4) (11): 1161-1204.

Assoc. Prof. Bruno Estigarribia
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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-anonymized 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 1600 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.