Introduction

Recent years have seen a continuous expansion of the topics addressed by Cognitive Linguistics as well as an integration with the concerns of other disciplines. This expansion is also evident in the current volume, which has grown out of the 8th International Conference of the German Cognitive Linguistics Association: Applied Cognitive Linguistics (DGKL-8). DGKL-8 was held at the University of Koblenz in September 2018. It was organised and hosted by Constanze Juchem-Grundmann, Susanne Niemeier, Michael Pleyer, and Monika Pleyer. Participants from 17 different countries presented research on a wide array of topics mainly in Applied Cognitive Linguistics but also Cognitive Linguistics in general. Thus, on the one hand, the conference reflected the growing interest in the “applied” dimension of Cognitive Linguistics. In recent years, Cognitive Linguistics has gained more and more ground in this area of research, spawning a sub-discipline often called Applied Cognitive Linguistics (cf., e.g., Pütz et al. 2001a,b; Robinson & Ellis 2008; Littlemore & Juchem-Grundmann 2010; Tyler et al. 2018; Hijazo-Gascón & Llopis-García 2019). Applied Cognitive Linguistics is generally used to refer to research on secondlanguage learning and teaching that is inspired by Cognitive Linguistics ( Littlemore & Juchem-Grundmann 2010; Tyler & Huang 2018). Many papers in the current volume reflect this growing interest in the different facets of a field that can be broadly classified as Applied Cognitive Linguistics (Garibyan, Balog & Herbst; Arnett, Suñer & Prust; Beger; Jäkel; Goschler). On the other hand, both the conference and the resulting volume reflect the wide range of topics that are addressed under the overarching framework of Cognitive Linguistics. Just as the previous bi-annual meetings of the German Cognitive Linguistics Association (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Kognitive Linguistik, DGKL) in Hamburg (2004), Munich (2006), Leipzig (2008), Bremen (2010), Freiburg (2012), Erlangen (2014) and Essen (2016), DGKL-8 therefore once again demonstrated the diverse, rich, and multifaceted nature of the Cognitive Linguistic landscape.