LINGUIST List 1.7

Sunday, 23 Dec 1990

Disc: What is LINGUIST?

Editor for this issue: <>

Directory

1. , Notice
2. len talmy, Re: Editors' Comment; Query

No postings will be made from LINGUIST until after January 10, 1991.
Both moderators will be attending the meeting of the Linguistic Society 
of America in Chicago, and will not have computer access until after
that date. A happy New Year to you all!

As a first-time receiver of an electronic message from 
your group, I have a comment on prose style. After 
reading your message, I still have no idea what 
"linguist" is or does. Is it a new journal requesting 
paid subscribers? Is it an electronic bulletin board 
for exchanging linguistic ideas, with free membership? 
Is it an electronic list of linguists' e-addresses? Is 
it some recombination of the preceding elements? Maybe 
this information was included in an earlier message, but 
the current message, my first, lacks it. Is some ready 
clarification available? Thanks.

[Moderators' Comment: 
 The moderators of this group have received one or two 
messages asking for clarification of the LINGUIST's 
aims. These we answered individually. When we received 
this last message, however, we felt that a good purpose 
might be served by dealing with this issue publicly. 

 LINGUIST was begun in order to serve as a forum for 
the dissemination of information which is relevant to 
the academic discipline of linguistics. It has a very 
simple purpose: to make it as easy as possible for a 
linguist to have contact with a large number of his or 
her peers, and to do so internationally. It is not a 
new electronic journal, and subscribing to it costs the 
subscriber nothing: the service is funded by a grant 
from the department of anthropology at the University of 
Western Australia. It is certainly an electronic 
bulletin board, but it is also a relatively open mailing 
list, and any member of the list may post to it at no 
charge. The postings may be queries, notices of 
forthcoming conferences or upcoming job vacancies, 
comment on issues of theoretical interest, or requests 
for copies of papers. The postings are moderated, but 
only to ensure that the content remains linguistic, and 
that the laws of libel remain uninfringed. 
 Can--should?--LINGUIST do more than this? We don't 
know. What do you think?]