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Linguistic research has always, either explicitly or implicitly, dealt with the interaction of linguistic phenomena and extralinguistic reality. Whether we are talking about targeted analyses of the nature of their interaction or whether this interaction is implied and taken for granted, linguistics has always been interested in its dynamics and manifestations. Thanks to the abundance of communicative channels (primarily those enabled/afforded by the electronic media) that modern society employs to satisfy its communication needs, the interaction between linguistic phenomena and the extralinguistic reality is becoming richer and more diversified. This is the reason why the 2020 Croatian Applied Linguistics Conference was precisely dedicated to this topic.

Meaning lies at the very heart of the development of language. Therefore, it is not surprising that the linguists have long been fascinated by the study of meaning, from the early days of the discipline to the present. Over time, the approach to meaning has evolved, shifting from structuralist analyses of linguistic signs to a focus on the combinatory potential of grammatical structures. Currently, the dominant cognitive-semantics approach examines meaning in relation to concepts and the abilities of the human brain. One of the most intriguing questions throughout the history of semantics has been the relationship between an individual and the linguistic community within the framework of the wider sign-meaning relation. This essential but insufficiently explored relationship was the central topic of the 33rd International Conference of the Croatian Applied Linguistics Society.

The topic of the book is the relationship between mind and language on all levels of linguistic research. Over the past decade, the cognitive approach to language and its methodology have started to permeate other areas of linguistic study, which, in turn, is opening up room for new types of research and resulting in new knowledge that contributes to explaining not only the linguistic phenomena, but also how they function in a linguistic community and contemporary society. The book tries to reflect these new developments. It consists of 11 chapters organized into three thematic sections: language and mind from linguistic perspective, the language and mind of the translator, and language and mind from the teacher's perspective.

This book aims at bridging language research and language teaching and contains four sections. It opens with two papers which relate language to literature: one exploring childlike language, the second investigating the distinction between literary and non-literary text categorization principles. Next are the papers on multicultural and sociolinguistic topics, including a paper on English as an international language, and two papers on the perception of bilingualism in education. The third thematic section explores semantics, with two papers on prefixes and one on metaphor. The final thematic section is dedicated to syntax, with one paper on complex predicates, one on syntactic complexity in spontaneous spoken language and one of Croatian null and overt subject pronouns.