Whether old or new, democracies are fragile. There are no guarantees that they will last. Why? Part of the answer is that democracy is an inherently unfinished project. There is always more political work to do. The institutions that define democratic life, such as a robust civil society, political parties that structure public opinion and voting behavior, and free, fair, and competitive elections, moreover, are just as available to authoritarians, as to democrats. Finally, democracies operate in an international system that supports the spread of dictatorship, as well as democracy.

It is the purpose of Chapter 3 to outline the semantic and syntactic properties of the CPs under investigation (Section 3.1 and Section 3.2) and to make clear that each of the CPs investigated in this study has a morphologically (and mostly semantically) related simpler verb counterpart in the paradigm (Section 3.3). The chapter is rounded off by a presentation of the three central hypotheses of this study (Section 3.4).

While I have so far looked at semantic changes affecting the CPs under investigation, I now turn to the question of which types of syntactic changes these constructions go through. This change of perspective is driven by the question of whether semantic and syntactic changes run in parallel (see Scenario 1, Section 1.1), whether semantic changes proceed faster than syntactic ones in the sense of ‘form follows function’ (Scenario 2) or whether syntactic changes are primary and semantic changes set in later (Scenario 3).

The analyses presented in Section 8.2 show whether all those Type I-CPs which undergo semantic specialization/restriction (make answer to, make mention of, make use of, take leave of and take notice of; see Chapter 7) are part of the same scenario (either Scenario 1, 2 or 3) or whether they differ as to when semantic and syntactic changes set in. For a start, however, I place all CPs under investigation (no matter whether they undergo semantic specialization or not) on a scale that measures their degree of syntactic fixation in twentieth-century BrE (see Section 8.1).

For more than seven and a half decades, India has enjoyed the moniker of “world’s largest democracy.” In addition to this distinction, the country is the most enduring democracy in the developing world. India adopted universal suffrage in 1947, despite an extremely low per capita income. Since then, the country has sustained its commitment to democratic governance despite poverty, inequality, unprecedented diversity, and sprawling geography (Varshney 2013). This makes India both an important outlier as well as an exemplar for poor, multiethnic democracies the world over (Stepan, Linz, and Yadav 2011).

The rise of the far-right is a global phenomenon connected with the erosion of liberal democracy, especially in Europe and North America. It is not surprising that scholars are paying increasing attention to the ideas defended by the far-right and the factors that help to explain its electoral support. However, most research tends to focus on individual countries or regions, neglecting cross-regional perspectives crucial for understanding the diffusion of far-right ideas and political strategies. To fill this void, this contribution delves into the Foro Madrid, a novel transnational advocacy network primarily composed of far-right political entities. Spearheaded by VOX, a Spanish populist radical right party, the Foro Madrid seeks to forge an alliance between Europe and Latin America to counterbalance perceived leftist influences. By analyzing the Foro Madrid’s rhetoric and strategies, the chapter aims to demonstrate a deliberate dissemination of far-right ideas from north to south. The empirical findings shed light on this diffusion process and its potential ramifications for liberal democracy. Moreover, the chapter reflects on the implications of this dissemination, contemplating its impact on liberal democratic norms and structures.

Suboptimal diet is a major risk factor for health issues and early mortality globally. Diets like the Mediterranean, DASH, and whole-food plant-based are associated with improved health and disease prevention. It’s crucial to assess dietary quality and nutritional status during clinical consultations using brief validated tools. Dietary habit improvements can be achieved through medical consultations with time and follow-up. The most effective way to promote healthy eating at a population level is through Public Health policies. Nutrition research has advanced from focusing on calories to understanding food quality, processing, and the role of phytoactive substances. Large-scale studies have established associations between diet and health outcomes, despite challenges in proving causality. High-quality trials such as DASH and Lyon Diet Heart Study have shown the benefits of specific dietary patterns on health. Tailoring dietary advice to individual characteristics can motivate healthier eating habits. Discussing dietary habits in clinical consultations should be sensitive to cultural, social, and financial determinants.

In this chapter explore language usage and interaction in general and discuss the overlap of sociolinguistics with the fields of pragmatics and discourse analysis. We will investigate the conventional patterns used by speakers when they construct, participate in and evaluate discourse at large. The concept of face is an important one here, namely the self-image of speakers that they wish to maintain and protect via the sociolinguistic resources available to them: speech events in the form of narratives, telephone conversations, weblogs, university lectures, etc. Context effects on sociolinguistic interaction are discussed with examples of turn-taking, power, solidarity and cross-cultural communication, and also with a focus on social hierarchies and language practices in the workplace. We conclude with a discussion of crossing and translanguaging in multilingual contexts.

We take a look at fundamental principles that operate when social and/or regional varieties of English are in contact with each other or with other languages. We take a historical look at English and explore various contact settings which have shaped its development, from contact with Old Norse, Latin and Norman French to the present day. We discuss patterns of bilingualism and multilingualism, that is when speakers use two or more languages in their everyday lives. As the product of migration and colonization, different kinds of English have emerged in different locations around the world. We learn how new dialects emerge as a product of new-dialect formation and how contact-derived varieties such as pidgins and creoles develop under conditions of language contact, with emphasis on different theories of origins. Finally, we discuss the so-called Global Englishes which have emerged as a product of second-language learning around the world.

During the crisis that the Hannibalic war provoked, the ‘old guard’ of consulars who had been consuls for the first time in the 230s assumed the leadership role in the military field and in politics. A number of ex-consuls once again held offices with imperium and were placed at the head of the army as consuls, praetors, or promagistrates. The state of emergency in Rome also led to the appointment of dictators, all of them ex-consuls. The military contribution of consulars also took place in intermediate positions, as legates under consuls or consulars, but also under imperatores who had not attained that rank, always with tasks of high responsibility. In 209, we find the last two censors who had not been consuls: from that year onwards, all censors were former consuls, and censorship became the potential culmination of a consular’s political career. From 209, the censors always designated as princeps senatus the man they considered to be the princeps civitatis. As before, the princeps senatus had to be a patrician consular and censorian, but the position was left open to competition. It was very unusual that consulars were co-opted for a priestly college. Two consulars were named triumviri mensarii to face up the economic crisis.