Editorial 5 crossroADs. A Journal of english studies Editorial This special issue brings together articles based on a selection of papers we received in response to a call for papers for a themed issue dedicated to Cognitive Linguistics (henceforth CL). The volume includes five original qualitative studies and a review of a book that deal with topics which might be of interest not only to cognitive linguists, but also to linguists of other persuasions. We thank the au- thors for their contributions and the referees for the time and expertise they invested in the reviews. We are also grateful to Crossroads editor-in-chief Agata Rozumko for her support and patience. CL, with its primary assumption that language is embedded in overall human cognitive ca- pacities, has emerged out of dissatisfaction with formal approaches to language. It can be seen as a movement that has led to a range of complementary theories characterized by the same set of guiding principles and commitments (for an overview of CL as a research paradigm see e.g., Geer aerts, 2006 or Barczewska, 2017). What we wish to demonstrate through the selection of articles included in this volume, is the diversity of the cognitive linguistics enterprise. The term “diversity” needs to be understood here as pertaining primarily to a range of theoretical frameworks developed within CL, such as for ex- ample Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) and Conceptual Blending Theory that are employed in the papers brought together in this issue. At another level, the term diversity also concerns the data sources represented by various corpora, such as the Stormfront forum, wine blogs or WCEL, used for extracting data, as well as methodological tools that were used to investigate the topics addressed in the articles. At yet another level, linguistic diversity – the theme of the 14th Interna- tional Cognitive Linguistics Conference (ICLC-14) in 2017 – is also present in this volume. Com- pared to the number of different languages that figure in the program of ICLC-14, our volume exhibits a very modest range of languages. It is, however, typologically quite diverse – data for analyses are drawn from a Slavic, a Germanic and a Sino-Tibetan language. Finally, the research presented here covers a range of topics, running the gamut from the study of metaphors, to an emotionally-loaded Polish adverb, comprising the study of emergent structure in advertisement posters, and including the conceptual transfer in the use of prepositions. The volume opens with Agnieszka Piórkowska’s study of the Polish adverb niestety ‘unfortu- nately/regrettably’ conducted on a corpus of data compiled from a search on Google, and follows the methodology of Taylor and Pang (2008). Piórkowska’s paper – relying on two approaches to subjectification: Langacker’s and Traugott’s – demonstrates that different uses of niestety are gov- erned by the process of subjectification and intersubjectification. Grounded in Conceptual Blending Theory, Justyna Polak’s paper discusses both the unique status as well as the explanatory potential of the emergent structure. Based on an analysis of four advertising posters which depict an image of a child, the paper demonstrates that a blend – 6 crossroADs. A Journal of english studies to achieve its persuasive goals – is necessary to develop a well-organized and congruent emergent structure. A blend with an incoherent structure, on the other hand, may have a negative impact on the success of the product being advertised, as illustrated by one of the examples in her corpus. Adopting CMT in general and Musolff’s (2016) framework in particular, Małgorzata Waśniewska’s paper analyzes various forms of usage of the PEOPLE AS PARASITES metaphor on a white-supremacist Internet forum. Overall, Waśniewska shows that CMT is a useful tool for analyzing the phenomenon in question, while also suggesting a way in which Lakoff and Johnson’s framework can be employed to combat hate speech. The paper by Shuai Zhang and Shaoqian Luo – embracing Image Schema Theory – deals with the conceptual transfer in Chinese EFL learners’ use of prepositions. Answers to two research questions are sought by investigating the data taken from the WCEL corpus. On the whole, the study confirms that the errors made by students in their use of English prepositions are due to the negative conceptual transfer from the Chinese language. Departing from CMT and frame semantics, Magdalena Zawisławska and Marta Falkowska examine taste metaphors used in Polish wine blogs. The data taken from a corpus of synesthetic metaphors in Polish, allow them to offer a typology of metaphors present in wine discourse. A book review by Daniel Karczewski and Edyta Wajda concludes the volume. Devoted to the analysis of the press discourse regarding the American debate over evolution education, Concep- tualizing Evolution Education by Shala Barczewska presents interesting insights into the debate in question. It is a methodologically sound, theoretically grounded research monograph that will be useful for researchers and students as a source of ideas and inspiration. To conclude, as it is obvious from these summaries, the papers in the present volume do not converge on a single theory or methodology, but rather rely on a network of complementary theo- ries which aid our understanding of various linguistic phenomena. These theories demonstrate a range of research possibilities available within the CL framework. They can also help in improv- ing communication between people with diverging viewpoints (see for instance Waśniewska’s pa- per in this volume or Barczewska’s book). Daniel Karczewski, University of Białystok Joanna Marhula, University of Warsaw Magdalena Rybarczyk, University of Nottingham Ningbo China 7 crossroADs. A Journal of english studies references Barczewska, Shala. 2017. Conceptualizing Evolution Education. A Corpus-Based Analysis of US Press Discourse. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Geeraerts, Dirk. 2006. “A rough guide to Cognitive Linguistics.” In Geeraerts, Dirk (ed.) Cognitive linguistics: Basic reading. Cognitive linguistics research 34.Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 1–28. Musolff, Andreas. 2016. Political Metaphor Analysis. Discourse and Scenarios. London: Bloomsbury Academic. Taylor, John E. and Kam-Yiu S. Pang. 2008. “Seeing as though”.English Language and Linguistics 12(1), 103–139.