The knowledge of additional languages is a desirable value nowadays. Raising a bilingual child yields numerous advantages (Baker, 2014; Bialystok, 2001; Romaine, 1995). In order to help their children acquire and learn a foreign language (FL), mainly English, most parents decide to raise their children in a FL that is also foreign to them and that is not the language of the community. However, strategies and linguistic practices in BiNeoLingual (BNL) Upbringing (or bilingual upbringing by non-native parents) have not yet been studied using a statistically significant sample size to draw generalizable conclusions. There is a need to adequately portray and analyse this emerging sociolinguistic phenomenon (Lozano-Martínez 2019). In this quantitative study, through a simple random sampling, 571 families out of the 2010 that participated in a questionnaire were identified as using English as a FL with their children. Nevertheless, “family linguistic planning is crucial to children’s linguistic development” (Lozano-Martínez 2019, 235). Dealing with strategies, One Parent-One Language (OPOL) is the most well-known but, according to the results, OPOL is not the most followed strategy by BNL families. Statistical tests also show that strategies depend on different factors and are often mixed in the BNL family.

This paper investigates the linguistic implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on different varieties of English, focusing on assertive and non-assertive linguistic markers in crisis communication. Motivated by the convergence of socio-cultural shifts and linguistic change, the study explores variations across Inner Circle (GB, US, NZ) and Outer Circle (SG, ZA) varieties within the Coronavirus Corpus (Davies 2019-). The central hypothesis posits an increased use of assertive markers and decreased use of non-assertive markers during crises. Such markers are taken from Biber’s (1988) multidimensional analysis, specifically from Dimension 4 and Factor 7. Thus, analyzing suasive verbs, conditional subordination, necessity modals, hedging strategies, downtoners, and concessive subordination, the findings reveal distinct patterns influenced by the timing and intensity of COVID-19 waves and the socio-political measures adopted. The results challenge the conventional Inner and Outer Circle dichotomy, emphasizing localized strategies in crisis communication over geographical distinctions, and they also confirm the validity of Biber’s multidimensional analysis nearly 40 years after its publication.

Don DeLillo’s Zero K (2016) and Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun (2021) explore the possible outcomes on the path toward a future riddled with artificial intelligence, as they examine the role posthumanism may embody in future societies. Both texts concern themselves with the depiction of characters who attempt to avoid traumatic occurrences through the (ab)use of posthuman proceedings, as well as with the impending hierarchical (re)ordering implicit in the access to posthuman practices. DeLillo and Ishiguro portray worlds in which human beings tamper with science not yet fully explored as they depict the uncertainties that the encounter with the posthuman other entails. Concurrently, both authors theorise that privilege may be abused to avoid suffering and loss, by showcasing attempts at avoiding emotional turmoil. This way, both authors provide an exploration of the future uses posthuman practices may provide, and the possible inherent dangers implied. In so doing, both novels explore the ways in which the approach to trauma and posthumanism may be inextricably linked.

Emoji have recently gained in popularity in digital communication. However, while age has been considered in emoji studies, mainly in relation to frequency and preference, its role in shaping emoji meaning, its connection with the topic in question, position and pragmatic value within Twitter/X discourse remains underexamined. This study addresses the gap by considering how different age groups use emoji in the Twitter/X discourse context of music fandom. Two samples of data are analysed: one consisting of posts from the accounts of three British rappers in their mid-twenties, and the other comprising tweets from three well-known London singers born in the 1950s and 1960s. Findings suggest that age, which has consistently been found to play a significant role in offline communication, also influences the use of emoji in Twitter/X. Indeed, very notable differences here were observed between the two groups. The categories of ‘Hearts’, ‘Music & Films’ and ‘Celebrations’ occur more frequently among the mature adults of the sample, whereas those of ‘Fire’ and ‘Hands & Fingers’ are more commonly used by the younger adults. Additionally, the former group seems to favour ‘standalone’ emoji as responses to previous messages. Pragmatically, subjective functions are more prominent among the participating mature adults, whereas intersubjective functions are more frequent with the younger users.

. This article delves into Naomi Alderman’s The Future (2023), a sci-fi feminist dystopia that revisits and updates her previous novel, The Power (2017). Whereas in The Power, a cataclysm turns gender roles upside down, The Future goes further as it seemingly features the end of Western neo-liberalism and civilization. In the Capitalocene envisaged in The Future, there are still a few survivalists, i.e. nomad characters in a pluriversal scenario, who contest the new order (a continuation of its predecessor) and struggle for an ethical one based on a partnership model where empathy and a liberating revolution can replace a hierarchical and exterminist paradigm. Yet, this paper argues, this dystopia recalls Alderman’s previous fiction: it is at once parodic, devastating and especially cautionary because the system which intends to replace the current techno-dystopia can be easily corrupted. As the analysis of the novel shows, a dystopian regime is cyclically replaced by a similar one in the Capitalocene. To explore Alderman’s latest dystopia and its redeeming features, this essay considers Riane Eisler’s “dominator” and “partnership” models, Jeremy Rifkin’s conception of empathy, and Hannah Arendt’s idea of revolution.

The Life of Puppets (2023) reinterprets Carlo Collodi’s Pinocchio set in a dystopian future where most of humanity has disappeared. Victor Lawson is a 19-year-old human who lives peacefully with his unconventional family of non-human machines. Their tranquil life in an isolated wood is shattered when Victor finds and repairs an android, Hap, and unintentionally reveals the family’s location to the dangerous robots from the City of Electric Dreams. This paper discusses The Life of Puppets through the lenses of posthumanism, Affect theory, and Gothic fiction. Drawing on Rosi Braidotti’s view that posthuman subjects are relational entities defined by connections with both human and nonhuman agents, the story challenges the traditional boundaries of identity. Affect theory emphasizes the fluidity of relationships and emotions, challenging notions of human superiority and suggesting that emotions can transcend human experience. The novel’s connection to Gothic fiction’s exploration of societal anxieties further develops this analysis. Through its depiction of fears related to biotechnological advancement, The Life of Puppets reflects contemporary concerns about identity and agency in a machine-dominated world. Ultimately, the novel offers a profound commentary on what it means to be human in an increasingly posthuman landscape.

This article focuses on the instructive protagonists of Kate Muir’s Suffragette City (1999) and Lisa Evan’s Old Baggage (2018) in what regards their revisionist didacticism of the British suffragette movement. The narrative devices deployed by Muir and Evans will be analyzed as revealing the novels’ double didactic value as pedagogic tools for characters and readers. I argue that Muir and Evans do not seek to gain supporters for a cause already accomplished, but to fill in existent gaps in the historical record about such a crucial part of feminist history. The use of different narrative elements − epistolary fragments in Suffrage City and lectures and speeches in Old Baggage − confer these novels with an educational tone helping readers un/learn certain aspects of the women’s campaign for the vote. Ultimately, I seek to prove that the authors offer an insight of the suffrage movement that stems from the revision and disclaim of wrong assumptions and ideas about the Cause. In this respect, I argue that the novels urge readers to learn about the women’s movement and challenge preconceived notions about this historical period achieving this double purpose by emphasising the role of the suffragette as educator and mentor.