Call for papers - Vol. 21, n. 1/2027 - Emergence and language (eds. J. Miller & E. Onnis)

2026-07-27

Call for papers - Rivista Italiana di Filosofia del Linguaggio www.rifl.unical.it

Vol. 21, n. 1/2027: Emergence and Language

Editors: James Miller (Durham University), Erica Onnis (Cusano University)

Emergence is broadly understood as the appearance of genuinely novel and therefore irreducible properties, structures, and behaviours arising from the interaction of simpler components.

Despite being a central topic in philosophy of science and metaphysics, its implications for philosophy of language and linguistics remain comparatively underexplored. However, the linguistic dimensions seem to offer compelling and philosophically rich instances of emergent phenomena: the evolutionary origin of natural languages; the emergence of grammar and linguistic structures; that of meaning and creativity; that of social and institutional facts through linguistic acts and their inscription. These phenomena are cases in which something genuinely new comes into being through complex historical, linguistic, cognitive, and/or social processes and makes a difference to the world.

This issue of the Rivista Italiana di Filosofia del Linguaggio invites original contributions investigating the relationships between emergence and language. The issue aims to bring together work in philosophy of language and linguistics, philosophy of science, aesthetics, complexity science, metaphysics, and social ontology.

Papers exploring, but not limited to, the following topics are welcome:

  • The emergence of natural and/or artificial languages;
  • The emergence of grammar;
  • The emergence of linguistic structures and meanings;
  • The relationaship between emergence and creativity;
  • Emergent social facts and their relationships with linguistic facts;
  • Natural and/or artificial languages as complex dynamical systems;
  • The nature of linguistic novelty;
  • Philosophical frameworks able to capture emergence in language (weak strong, ontological vs. epistemological, synchronic vs. diachronic).

Manuscripts, in Italian or in English, must be accompanied by an abstract (max. 250 words), a title, and 5 keywords. All submissions must be prepared for anonymous evaluation. The name, affiliation and title of the contribution should be indicated in a separated file.

Contribution must be sent in .doc or .docx format to segreteria.rifl@gmail.com

 

Maximum contribution length

45000 characters, including spaces, bibliography, and endnotes.

 

Guidelines

The manuscript must be prepared using the template at this link:

http://www.rifl.unical.it/authortemplate/template_eng.doc.

 

Submission deadline

November 30 th, 2026

For any questions, please write to erica.onnis@unicusano.it