Response to Bernhard Wälchli

[Bill McGregor]

The Jury of the ALT Junior Prize regrets that Bernhard Wälchli decided not
to accept the jointly awarded prize for his first-class thesis. Though we
do not ourselves see that his decision follows from his stated motivation,
we accept his right to make this decision.

In spite of everything, the Jury would like to say that we were pleased to
have the opportunity to read Bernhard's thesis (and of course all of the
other theses submitted), and trust that he takes some pleasure in our
choice of winners, which, it might be added, was unanimous.

Bernhard makes some suggestions for alternative, non-competitive, ways of
supporting and encouraging young typologists. We encourage him to follow
up on his suggestion of an edited volume containing contributions by young
typologists. We have come to an agreement with the secretariat that
regular announcements of theses will appear in the ALT newsletter. As
members of the Jury/LT executive, however, we feel that the Prize does
have a place, and that the type of competition it encourages should be
seen as beneficial – providing motivation for scholars to excel. It need
not be seen as encouraging competitors to work against one another.
Rather, we see it as a way of raising the profile of doctoral and
postdoctoral typologists within the broader field of linguistics and
drawing greater attention to the quality and importance of their work than
it might otherwise attract.

Bill McGregor & Nick Evans

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Prof. William McGregor,
Aarhus Universitet,
Institut for Lingvistik,
Nobel Park,
Jens Chr. Skous Vej 7
DK-8000 Aarhus C
Denmark
Ph. 45 89 42 65 59
Fax 45 89 42 65 70
e:mail: linwmg at hum.au.dk
http://www.hum.au.dk/lingvist/linwmg/
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