The Editor's department

THE EDITOR'S DEPARTMENT The following annual report was delivered to the Executive Committee and to the general Business Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America at its New York meeting in December 1981: Volume 57 oí Language, for the year 1981, consists of the usual four issues, comprising 1004 pages. With the help of our new typesetters, the Maryland Composition Co., we were able to get back on schedule this year, and the December issue was mailed at the beginning of December. The present volume contains 23 articles, 5 review articles, 48 book reviews, and 123 book notices. After the receipt of an article in final form, the time required for its publication ranged from 10 to 18 months, with an average of 12.1 months—a bit faster than had been possible in the years preceding. The number ofarticles submitted during the academic year 1980-81 was 106; the number accepted was 20, or 19%—a slightly higher proportion than in other recent years. Two innovations in our editorial operation have taken place during 1981. First, it should be recalled that, at the December 1980 meeting of the LSA Executive Committee, a report was presented by Ivan Sag and David Dowty on behalf of the 'Area Review Committ8e on Syntax and Semantics'. This report included thoughtful letters from a number of linguists concerning the contents of Language, and led to further correspondence with many concenred scholars. This in turn ted to a growing realization on my part that many linguists lacked a clear understanding of existing editorial policies and procedures, and that the publication of my annual report in the LSA Bulletin had not been a fully satisfactory way of communicating. I therefore decided to institute an 'Editor's department' as a new section of Language, and to use it for publication of my annual report, as well as for oth8r types of information and comments of general interest to readers. The new section first appeared in the December 1981 issue of the journal, and the pres8nt Editor's Report is appearing in the issue dated June 1982. The second innovation to be reported is that, during 1981, the Executive Committee of the LSA approved the expenditure of funds for buying and installing a computer terminal in my editorial office, connected to a computer in the UCLA Phonetics Laboratory. This equipment is to be used for both word-processing and record-keeping. The main project undertaken to date is the compilation of a cumulative index to Language—starting from 1975, when a 50-year index was published ; it is planned that the index for volumes 51-60 will be published at the end of 1984. I am grateful to the Executive Committee, to the UCLA Phonetics Lab, and to its Director, Prof. Peter Ladefoged, for making all this possible. My warmest gratitude goes as usual to my Associate Editors; during 1981 these were Eve Clark, Mary Clayton, Bernard Comrie, David Dowty, Jorge Hankarror, Larry Hyman, Edith Moravcsik, Donna Jo Napoli, Frederick Newmeyer, Johanna Nichols, Stanley Peters, María-Luisa Rivero, and Joel Sherz8r. In addition, I wish to thank by name the following scholars who helped referee manuscripts during the calendar year 1981: 496 THE EDITOR'S DEPARTMENT 497 Judith Aissen Keith Allan Stephen Anderson Mark Aronoff Peter Austin John Baugh Derek Bickerton Andras Bodrogligeti Marianne Celce-Murcia Paul Chapín Sandra Chung Ross Clark Chris Corne Pet8r Culicover Alice Davison Bruce Derwing A. M. Devine Janet Dougherty Carole Edelsky Leonard Faltz Joshua Fishman Suzanne Fleischman Robert Freidin Talmy Givón Jean Berko Gleason John Goldsmith John Haiman Morris Halle Bruce Hayes Jane Hill James Hoard Henry Hoenigswald Paul Hopper Larry Horn Kathleen Houlihan Dell Hymes Ray Jackendoff Osvaldo Jaeggli Richard Janda Yamuna Kachru Paul Kay Kostas Kazazis Deborah Keller-Cohen Keith Kernan Robert Kirsner S-Y. Kuroda Finally, deepest thanks go to my editorial Linnea Lagerquist, Janine Scancarelli, and D. Robert Ladd Peter Ladefoged Ronald Langacker Tom Larsen Howard Lasnik Use Lehiste W. P. Lehmann James McCawley Sally McConnell-Ginet Ray McDermott Joan Manes Carolyn Mervis Anthony Naro John Ohala Fernando Peftalosa Herbert Penzl Keith Percival Janet Pierrehumbert Shana Poplack Nicholas Poppe Bruce Pray William Rutherford Ivan...