eLanguage and historical linguistics

[Domenec Mendez]

Hi all,

just chipping in with my 10 cents for this new publication.
good luck to everybody.

Domenec

www.livescripts.ning.com

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Joseph Salmons <jsalmons at wisc.edu>
Date: Sun, Jan 17, 2010 at 7:09 PM
Subject: Re: [Histling-l] eLanguage and historical linguistics
To: Claire Bowern <claire.bowern at yale.edu>
Cc: histling-l <histling-l at mailman.rice.edu>


Thanks, Claire, for raising this.

Speaking as the editor of one of the few existing journals dedicated to
language change, I personally would welcome the development of a new
e-journal and/or print journal in the field. Yes, we at Diachronica are
being pretty much overwhelmed with submissions, far more than we can
publish, and this is generally work of high quality -- it's material that
deserves to be out there.

The new LabPhon journal might be one model for how to move forward, and it's
consistent with what you suggest. I don't know exactly, but I believe they
assembled a committee to discuss things, develop a focus, work with possible
publishers, etc. Agreeing to join a group of 10-12 people would be less
taxing than taking the lead alone. (I don't have time to lead the effort
either -- thanks to the traffic at Diachronica, largely -- but I'd
appreciate at least knowing what's happening.)

A key issue will be finding the right focus -- something that differentiates
any new journal sufficiently from Diachronica, FLH and other outlets. For
instance, at Diachronica, if a paper doesn't make a pretty directly
theoretical contribution to understanding language change (along with
careful empirical angles, of course), its chances of acceptance drop
dramatically. It would be great to have a general historical journal that
doesn't insist on that -- where a good analysis of historical data would be
welcome on its own terms.

Another issue may be that some might have concerns about creating an
e-journal (such as eLanguage) rather than a print journal, but that too
could presumably be talked through.

Let's hope your message will generate some discussion on the list about how
to move forward.

Joe

On Jan 17, 2010, at 9:52 AM, Claire Bowern wrote:

Dear all,
I'd like to bring histling subscribers' attention to the LSA's eLanguage
cojournal site (http://elanguage.net/). eLanguage is set up as a set of
"cojournals" (that is, independent journals with their own editorial boards
and referee process), but with a single web host and related infrastructure.


It would be great if historical linguistics had its own cojournal. Some
informal discussions I've had would indicate that there's considerable
interest in a new historical journal, that the current outlets for
historical journal publications have no shortage of quality submissions and
that a new publication would not hurt them, and that it would be a good way
to raise the profile of our field.

Would someone be interested in taking this on? Information about proposing a
cojournal can be found here: http://elanguage.net/propose.php Perhaps a
small group of histling subscribers would be interested in getting together
to put a proposal together? (note, I'm not volunteering; unfortunately, I
just don't have the time.)

Claire

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Editor, Diachronica
328 University Club
432 East Campus Mall
University of Wisconsin
Madison, WI 53706
(608) 262-8180
http:// <http://csumc.wisc.edu/>diachronica.org

joseph-salmons.net






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