Mouton "discounts" for ALT members

[Bill Croft]

Dear typologists,

     Some of you have taken advantage of the discounts that Mouton has 
offered to ALT members for the Mouton Grammar Library and Empirical 
Approaches to Language Typology series. The discount, available in a 
list at the Lingtyp website, used to be around 50% of the (very high) 
list price of the volumes in these series. After 2009, no new volumes 
were added to the discount list. Now the new discount list has 
reappeared but the discount has shrunk to 20%.

    The change in the discount has made the MGL and EALT volumes go 
from (barely) affordable to completely unaffordable to individual 
scholars. This is particularly serious because Mouton volumes are so 
expensive - pretty much the most expensive in the field of 
linguistics - that it is difficult if not impossible for university 
libraries to purchase them. I inquired about the change, and was told 
that De Gruyter decided to standardize the discount for all societies 
at 20%, and since Mouton is owned by De Gruyter, Mouton has to 
conform to De Gruyter policies.

     At this point, according to the current ALT discount list, 
volumes published before 2009 are still available at their original 
discount price. I do not know how long that will last.

    I do not know if it is worth trying, but I would urge members to 
object to this change in policy to Mouton and De Gruyter.

Sincerely,
Bill Croft