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New Lingua initiatives
Lingua 113 (2003) 605–606 www.elsevier.com/locate/lingua
Editorial
New Lingua initiatives Lingua wishes to publicize three exciting initiatives: Lingua Franca—provocative exchanges expressing strong opinions on central topics in linguistics; The Decade In—excellent overview articles offering the nonspecialist linguist an overview of a given area of study; Taking up the Gauntlet—a Special Issue in which several papers address the same set of data from different theoretical angles. The editors hope the Gauntlet issues will prove invaluable as an advanced undergraduate or graduate teaching tool.
1. Lingua Franca Lingua is introducing a series of provocative articles under the general heading of Lingua Franca. Initially, essays are invited on a favourite topic. These essays voice strong opinions and are supported by arguments in an entertaining manner. Obvious examples of the genre include Geoff Pullum’s Topic/Comment contributions to Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, and Neil Smith’s and E´lan Dresher’s columns for Glot International. Following publication of the initial provocative essay, responses are elicited and published. The original contributor then has the opportunity to reply. Where someone is an obvious target of a particular contribution, he or she will also be sent a copy and invited to respond, usually in the same issue of the journal. Other responses are welcome, provided new points are being made, and will be published on an ongoing basis. The editors retain the right to decide on publication, to edit exchanges, and to close off the discussion.
2. Survey articles/The Decade In. . . The journal Lingua wishes to launch a series of survey articles called ‘‘The Decade In. . .’’. We aim at publishing overview articles that would give nonspecialist linguists an insight into the way in which specific areas of expertise have developed in the last 0024-3841/03/$ - see front matter doi:10.1016/S0024-3841(02)00160-2
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Editorial / Lingua 113 (2003) 605–606
10 years. Survey articles will be devoted to developments in specific theoretical schools, as well as to developments in the study of particular language areas and families. Examples of such articles include George van Driem’s ‘‘Tibeto–Burman replaces Indo–Chinese in the 1990s: review of a decade of scholarship’’ [Lingua 112(2)], and Marian Klamer’s ‘‘Ten years of synchronic Austronesian linguistics’’ (1991–2002) [Lingua 112(11)]. The editors of Lingua call upon their readers to contact them if they wish to contribute a Decade-style article.
3. Taking up the Gauntlet Lingua wishes to launch a series of Special Issues edited by Guest Editors under the common title: ‘‘Taking up the Gauntlet’’. These Special Issues are to be edited according to a format that is considerably different from the traditional thematic issue and will bring together a set of articles sharing a given research theme. In order to make the intellectual debate more challenging, Lingua borrowed an idea from the book edited by Moravcsik and Wirth (1980). The core idea is to invite a handful of researchers to contribute an article each about an identical set of data. Each contributor will be challenged to explain how his/her theory deals with the proposed set of data. The contributor may also add a strictly limited number of additional data that are of particular import to his /her theory. The debate should not necessarily run along the classical theoretical fault lines (HPSG/LFG/P&P-Minimalism/OT). It is emphatically NOT the purpose of this series to get into bland discussions of the type ‘‘Anything you can do in your theory we can also do in our theory’’. The point is: who can gain most insight with a minimal set of assumptions and a maximum of arguments? Guest Editors are asked to do the following: Edit a Special Issue around a topic of interest. You may choose to make this topic more specific or more general after consulting with the editors of Lingua. Put together a set of data that are representative of the current debate in this research area. Data should reflect core issues that any theory should deal with, as well as the particularly hard nuts to crack. The data should be chosen fairly, that is, they should not be biased towards your favourite analysis. Select and contact 4–6 researchers and invite them to participate in this Special Issue, explaining the rules of the debate. Review the contributions in collaboration with reviewers of your choosing, as well as with Lingua Editorial Board members and Lingua editors. Special Issues of this sort on indefinites, adverbs, and tense are in preparation and well under way. Again, Lingua readers are encouraged to contact the editors if they wish to guest-edit a Gauntlet issue. J. Rooryck N.V. Smith D. Blakemore
Editorial
New Lingua initiatives Lingua wishes to publicize three exciting initiatives: Lingua Franca—provocative exchanges expressing strong opinions on central topics in linguistics; The Decade In—excellent overview articles offering the nonspecialist linguist an overview of a given area of study; Taking up the Gauntlet—a Special Issue in which several papers address the same set of data from different theoretical angles. The editors hope the Gauntlet issues will prove invaluable as an advanced undergraduate or graduate teaching tool.
1. Lingua Franca Lingua is introducing a series of provocative articles under the general heading of Lingua Franca. Initially, essays are invited on a favourite topic. These essays voice strong opinions and are supported by arguments in an entertaining manner. Obvious examples of the genre include Geoff Pullum’s Topic/Comment contributions to Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, and Neil Smith’s and E´lan Dresher’s columns for Glot International. Following publication of the initial provocative essay, responses are elicited and published. The original contributor then has the opportunity to reply. Where someone is an obvious target of a particular contribution, he or she will also be sent a copy and invited to respond, usually in the same issue of the journal. Other responses are welcome, provided new points are being made, and will be published on an ongoing basis. The editors retain the right to decide on publication, to edit exchanges, and to close off the discussion.
2. Survey articles/The Decade In. . . The journal Lingua wishes to launch a series of survey articles called ‘‘The Decade In. . .’’. We aim at publishing overview articles that would give nonspecialist linguists an insight into the way in which specific areas of expertise have developed in the last 0024-3841/03/$ - see front matter doi:10.1016/S0024-3841(02)00160-2
606
Editorial / Lingua 113 (2003) 605–606
10 years. Survey articles will be devoted to developments in specific theoretical schools, as well as to developments in the study of particular language areas and families. Examples of such articles include George van Driem’s ‘‘Tibeto–Burman replaces Indo–Chinese in the 1990s: review of a decade of scholarship’’ [Lingua 112(2)], and Marian Klamer’s ‘‘Ten years of synchronic Austronesian linguistics’’ (1991–2002) [Lingua 112(11)]. The editors of Lingua call upon their readers to contact them if they wish to contribute a Decade-style article.
3. Taking up the Gauntlet Lingua wishes to launch a series of Special Issues edited by Guest Editors under the common title: ‘‘Taking up the Gauntlet’’. These Special Issues are to be edited according to a format that is considerably different from the traditional thematic issue and will bring together a set of articles sharing a given research theme. In order to make the intellectual debate more challenging, Lingua borrowed an idea from the book edited by Moravcsik and Wirth (1980). The core idea is to invite a handful of researchers to contribute an article each about an identical set of data. Each contributor will be challenged to explain how his/her theory deals with the proposed set of data. The contributor may also add a strictly limited number of additional data that are of particular import to his /her theory. The debate should not necessarily run along the classical theoretical fault lines (HPSG/LFG/P&P-Minimalism/OT). It is emphatically NOT the purpose of this series to get into bland discussions of the type ‘‘Anything you can do in your theory we can also do in our theory’’. The point is: who can gain most insight with a minimal set of assumptions and a maximum of arguments? Guest Editors are asked to do the following: Edit a Special Issue around a topic of interest. You may choose to make this topic more specific or more general after consulting with the editors of Lingua. Put together a set of data that are representative of the current debate in this research area. Data should reflect core issues that any theory should deal with, as well as the particularly hard nuts to crack. The data should be chosen fairly, that is, they should not be biased towards your favourite analysis. Select and contact 4–6 researchers and invite them to participate in this Special Issue, explaining the rules of the debate. Review the contributions in collaboration with reviewers of your choosing, as well as with Lingua Editorial Board members and Lingua editors. Special Issues of this sort on indefinites, adverbs, and tense are in preparation and well under way. Again, Lingua readers are encouraged to contact the editors if they wish to guest-edit a Gauntlet issue. J. Rooryck N.V. Smith D. Blakemore