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This introductory paper sets the scene for the present double special issue on degree phenomena. Besides introducing the individual contributions, it positions degree in the overlapping fields of intensity, focus and emphasis. It outlines the wide-ranging means of expressing degree, their possible categorizations, as well as the manyfold uses of intensification with respect to involvement, politeness, evaluation, emotive expression and persuasion. It also decribes the many angles from which degree features have been studied as extending across, e.g., (historical) sociolinguistics, (historical) pragmatics, and grammaticalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we discuss how 'action research' as an experiential research approach allows us to address challenges encountered in researching a converged and digital media landscape. We draw on our experiences as researchers, co-developers and marketeers in the European Union-funded Innovation Action project 'INnovative Journalism: Enhanced Creativity Tools' (INJECT) aimed at developing a technological tool for journalism. In this media innovation process, as in other media practices, longstanding delineations no longer hold, due to converging professional disciplines and blurring roles of users and producers. First, we discuss four features of innovation in the current 'digital' media landscape that come with specific methodological requirements: (a) the iterative nature of innovation; (b) converged practices, professions and roles; (c) the dispersed geographic nature of media production and innovation processes and (d) the impact of human and non-human actors. We suggest action research as a possible answer to these requirements of the digital media landscape. Drawing on our experiences in the INJECT project, we illustrate how adopting an action research approach provides insight into the non-linear, iterative and converged character of innovation processes by highlighting: (a) how innovation happens at various moments, in various places and by various people; (b) how perceptions and enactments of professions change over time and (c) how roles are (re)combined and expanded in such a way that clear delineation is not easy. Ultimately, we argue that experiencing convergence through action research enables us to do justice to the complexity of the current media landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The English progressive construction is thriving. Even stative verbs, traditionally considered incompatible with the be+-ing form, are being increasingly used in the progressive. To fully understand these emerging uses of the so-called “progressive states,” we must consider the syntactic elements of the construction and the meaning and pragmatics of the so-called “stative” verb. In this paper, I perform a large-scale corpus analysis of love in the progressive (e.g., “I’m loving your blog!”) to investigate the new functions of this construction. My data confirm a tendency toward colloquialization (Mair & Hundt 1995; Mair 1997; Smitterberg 2005; Leech et al. 2009; Collins 2013; Levin 2013) and suggest an ongoing shift toward a more grammatical status. The core phenomenal meaning of the progressive construction and its heavy reliance on contextual information promotes the extension of the be-loving construction to a greater number of contexts and functions, including more subjective readings, which is missing in the corresponding non-progressive construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research explores perceptions of linguistic variation in English in Washington state (WA). Respondents marked on a map of WA the places where they believe people’s English sounds “different” and provided a label for that type of English. The analysis of the results used digital tools to create composite maps consisting of (1) respondents’ spatial perceptions of English in WA, (2) spatial perceptions of English in WA according to different demographic groups, and (3) affective values associated with regions identified by respondents. The results suggest that Washingtonians perceive that urban areas and eastern WA are places where English is different. The results also demonstrate that when respondents are surveyed about variation within their own state rather than variation across the country, local types of organizational categories, such as an urban/rural dichotomy or belief in a regional standard, can emerge. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Literature on the Belfast dialect of English typically describes it as one that is characterized by a rise-plateau nuclear pattern in declaratives. Informal listening suggests, however, that a falling nuclear pattern is employed in several instances, and its use appears to be gender related, in that it is found more frequently in female speech. A production study is carried out to discover the frequency of production of falling nuclear patterns in male and female speakers, and a perception test on Belfast speakers provides evidence that the use of falling nuclear pattern creates impressions of expressivity, emotional engagement, enthusiasm, and commitment to establishing effective interaction with the participant in the speech event. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Scholars continue to respond to Willis's foundational work of the 1960s, and to each other, using a variety of classical and new methodologies to treat questions of unity, coherence, theme, and other aspects of the book of Micah. Sampling works that use literary criticism, text criticism, form criticism, historical criticism, tradition criticism, redaction criticism, rhetorical criticism, feminist and womanist approaches, canonical and intertextual approaches, and inter-disciplinary approaches, as well as innovative combinations of these (both multi-critical and multi-disciplinary), this article follows the progress of methodological trends in Micah scholarship from the I 980s to the present. These trends have generated new questions regarding ideological concepts such as justice; class differences and power; and the book's use in the church. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]