Thematic focus: New methods in linguistics – Epistemological and theoretical issues
Linguistics is currently undergoing important changes, driven mainly by substantial methodological progress, which, in turn, opens new paths to rethink the foundations of the discipline. Experimental methods have become standard in linguistic research, eye-tracking and EEG studies shed new light on language processing, and big data, quantitative methods and AI allow for simulations and projections that were completely unthinkable until very recent times. Tools such as R are now an integral part of linguistic data analysis and visualization.
The aim of this special issue is to address the potential and limitations of new methods in linguistic research by asking, for example: To what extent is it possible to adopt methods from the natural and social sciences and apply them to linguistic issues? Do these methods adequately account for what we may take for the nature of the object, and may they even open new perspectives on how we conceptualize language? How can new methods help to get closer to the language activity or enérgeia in the Humboldtian sense? May experiments capture linguistic behaviour and reflect how speakers interact? Can corpus-based statistical modelling truly capture language dynamics, or may it risk overlooking deeper dimensions such as individual variation, presence of different varieties, textual traditions and the general distinction between competence and performance? To which extent can the results obtained from particular kinds of data be considered representative?
We invite researchers to submit contributions with an epistemological focus on methods in linguistics as well as texts exploring the possibilities of specific methods (e.g. experiments, see Zufferey/Gygax 2022; Wall et al. 2025, linguistic features and eye-tracking studies, see Schotter/Dillon 2025; Loureda et al. 2021, corpus studies, see Gerards in press, quantitative methods, see Mitkov 2014, using R, see Levshina 2015; Winter 2019, probabilistic approaches, see Grafmiller et al. 2018 to name just a few examples).
Manuscripts may be submitted in English, German, or in a Romance language.
Unpublished original contributions and documents should be submitted, considering the editorial guidelines. Submissions will be evaluated anonymously by two independent reviewers. The authors will be contacted after the evaluation procedure is completed and shall receive an evaluation report along with a request to revise their contribution if necessary.
References
Gerards, David Paul (in press): Bare Partitives in Old Spanish and Old Portuguese. Berlin/New York: de Gruyter [= Linguistische Arbeiten/Linguistic Studies].
Grafmiller, J. / Szmrecsanyi, B. / Röthlisberger, M. / Heller, B. (2018): “General introduction: A comparative perspective on probabilistic variation in grammar”, Glossa 3(1): 94. https://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.690
Levshina, Natalia (2015): How to do linguistics with R: data exploration and statistical analysis, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company
López Serena, Araceli (2019): La lingüística como ciencia humana. Una incursion desde la filosofía de la ciencia, Madrid: Arco.
Loureda Lamas, Óscar / Cruz, Adriana / Recio Fernández, Inés / Rudka, Martha (2021): Comunicación, partículas discusrivas y pragmática experimental, Madrid: Arco.
Mitkov, Ruslan (ed.) (2022): The Oxford Handbook of Computational Linguistics, 2nd ed., Oxford: OUP, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199573691.001.0001
Schotter, E., Dillon, B. (2025): “A beginner’s guide to eye tracking for psycholinguistic studies of reading”. Behavior Research Methods, 57:68. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-024-02572-4
Wall, Albert / Obrist, Philipp / Zeugin, Senta / Santos Rebelo, Patrick / Kabatek, Johannes (2025): “Differential Marking of inanimate direct objects across four varieties of Spanish: Evidence for grammatical differences from elicitation experiments», Glossa 10(1), 2025, 1–40. DOI: https://doi.org/10.16995/glossa.17201
Winter. Bodo (2019). Statistics for Linguists: An Introduction Using R. Routledge eBooks.
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315165547
Zufferey, Sandrine / Gygax, Pascal (eds.) (2023): The Routledge Handbook of Experimental Linguistics. London: Routledge.

Submission deadline for forthcoming issue no. XI (2026): April 30, 2026
Peer Review Process Completion: June 30, 2026
Online Publication: October 31, 2026.