Lexis – Journal in English Lexicology. N°29 – Lexical Strangeness – Creativity, Deviance and Innovation in Neology.
Deadline for contributions: 30 October 2026.
Issue edited by: Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3
Publication presentation
Lexis – Journal in English Lexicology – will publish its 29th issue in 2027. It will be edited by Cécile Poix (Lumière Lyon 2 University, France) and Gordana Lalić-Krstin (University of Novi Sad, Serbia) and will deal with the topic “Lexical Strangeness – Creativity, Deviance and Innovation in Neology”.
Lexical Strangeness – Creativity, Deviance and Innovation in Neology 
This issue of Lexis invites contributions that explore lexical strangeness in English – a variety of phenomena characterized by morphological creativity, deviance, and innovation that lies beyond conventional criteria of well-formedness. We welcome papers that investigate how speakers playfully subvert or extend lexicogenic norms to create novel lexical or phraseological items that demand attention, serve social functions, or push the boundaries of conventional lexical innovation.
While research on lexical creativity (Munat [2007], [2016]; Lalić-Krstin, Silaški & Renner [2025]) and extra-grammatical word-formation processes (Dressler [2000]; Mattiello [2013], [2017]) has provided frameworks for understanding non-standard word-formation, this issue of Lexis aims to open new discussions around the interface of morphological innovation and rhetorical strategies. We are particularly interested in diverse phenomena ranging from coded speech to punning, from internet innovations to anti-languages as “special forms of language generated by some kind of anti-society” (Halliday [1976]), and from playful formations to emergent morphological patterns. We welcome investigations of what Dressler [1981] has called “poetic audacity” and what, following Haspelmath [1999], Schmid [2020], and Eitelmann & Haumann [2022] describe as “linguistic extravagance”. Through their departure from expected patterns, these formations can serve as devices to seek attention (Lipka [1987]), or can result in salience, foregrounding or expressivity (Schmid [2020]).
Full CFP : https://journals.openedition.org/lexis/10458
Timeline of the publication process
- March 2026: Call for papers
- October 30 2026: Deadline for submitting abstracts to Lexis via the journal’s submission platform
- January 2027: Evaluation Committee’s decisions notified to authors
- May 30 2027: Deadline for submitting papers via the journal’s submission platform
(Guidelines for submitting articles: https://journals.openedition.org/lexis/1000 - June and July 2027: Proofreading of papers by the Evaluation committee
- August 1 to September 2027: Authors’ corrections
- September 30 2027: Deadline for sending in final versions of papers
Website address
N°29 – Lexical Strangeness – Creativity, Deviance and Innovation in Neology
Contact details
(Posted 4 March 2026)
Lexis – Journal in English Lexicology: Words about… #3: Words about Olfaction.
Deadline for contributions: 15 November 2026.
Issue edited by:
• Raghad Al Dirani (Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3, France),
• Rémi Digonnet (Université Jean Monnet de Saint-Étienne, France),
• Romina Leonor Toranzos (Universidade Estadual de Londrina, Brazil) and
• Konrad Szcześniak (University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland).
Publication presentation
The third issue of the “Words about…” series hosted by Lexis – Journal in English Lexicology focuses on “Words about Olfaction”.
Triangulations between language, perception, and the language of perception have been discussed continuously since antiquity in fields ranging from philosophy to biology. This issue of “Words about…” tackles the topic of the language of olfaction given the relatively low number of studies dedicated to this sensory modality compared to the other four Aristotelian sensory modalities, i.e. sight, hearing, touch, and taste (Lorig [1999], Winter [2019]). Linguists studying the expression of sensory modalities typically prioritize senses that are considered codable, i.e. legible in a normative system (see Berlin & Kay [1969] on color classification), on the grounds of the feasibility and reproducibility of experiments if data were available and attainable. For instance, in English, it is “easier to linguistically code colors than (non-musical) sounds, than tastes, than smells” according to Levinson & Majid [2014: 415]; similarly, “it is generally thought that sight is the most codable sensory modality, with linguists having suggested that there is more lexical differentiation for visual concepts in the world’s languages than for the other senses” according to Winter [2019: 33]. The English language facilitates the linguistic codability of colors while curbing that of odors (Viberg [1984]; Levinson & Majid [2014]), simply due to the greater number of lexemes referring to vision than those referring to smell. For instance, Lievers & Winter [2018: 20] retrieved data from multiple studies on English sensory modalities, and across their various quantitative datasets they found that about 27 to 57% of sensory lexemes are visual, while only about 4 to 10% of sensory lexemes are olfactory. Their calculations show that vision is always ranked first in terms of the number of lexemes, whereas olfaction is always ranked last.
Based on the observations regarding the scarcity of lexical means to refer to olfaction in English or French, olfaction has received little attention (Buck [1949]; Classen, Howes & Synnott [1994]; Majid [2001]; Kleiber & Vuillaume [2011]; Majid & Burenhult [2014]; Digonnet [2016]). This poverty in codability is articulated as ineffability and defined as the inability or difficulty in finding words to describe a particular experience (Lorig [1999]; Levinson & Majid [2014]). This linguistic codability differs from one language to another: the Jahai people, an indigenous group of the Semang population in Malaysia and parts of Thailand, have no difficulty naming olfactory experiences in Maniq (Levinson & Majid [2014]). In addition, the Chachi (or Capaya) people of Ecuador who speak Cha Apalache use a lexicon of the olfactory domain to speak about animals, plants, human activities and time, as perfumes play a key role for these people in traditional rituals and folk tales (Floyd, Roque & Majid [2018]).
Timeline
- June 2026: Call for papers
- November 15 2026: Deadline for submitting abstracts to Lexis via the journal’s submission platform
- January 2027: Evaluation Committee’s decisions notified to authors
- May 30 2027: Deadline for submitting papers via the journal’s submission platform
(Guidelines for submitting articles: https://journals.openedition.org/lexis/1000) - June and July 2027: Proofreading of papers by the Evaluation committee
- September to October 2027: Authors’ corrections
- November 1st 2027: Deadline for sending in final versions of papers
Website addresses
- https://journals.openedition.org/lexis/ (journal)
- https://journals.openedition.org/lexis/10669 (issue)
- https://ojs.openedition.org/index.php/lexis (submission of abstract and/or article)
Contact details
Prof. Denis Jamet-Coupé: lexis@univ-lyon3.fr
(Posted 10 June 2026)