From the Editors

This is the second issue of volume 29. It is a special issue entitled Exploring the impersonal domain: Empirical observations from Slavic and guest-edited by Katrin Schlund and Peter Kosta.

With the completion of issue 29.1, Jordan Hussey-Andersen took over from Renata Uzzell as JSL managing editor; we thank Renata for her service, and we welcome Jordan to the team. We also thank Frank Gladney for continued help with language editing.

While this issue was in production, SLS issued a "Position Statement on the Russian Invasion of Ukraine". The text is published as part of the front matter in this issue. This is an official statement of the Slavic Linguistics Society, unrelated to this special issue, and need not reflect the views of the contributors to this issue.

We welcome new submissions through our website: http://ojs.ung.si/index.php/JSL.

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On February 24, 2022, at 05:55 Moscow time, after several weeks of military preparations along the eastern Ukrainian border, Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, announced the initiation of what he referred to as a "military operation" in the Donbas region of Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky swiftly enacted martial law and ordered a military response against the ingress of Russian troops. The combat continues to escalate; though mainly focused in the east, conflict has been reported in the major Ukrainian cities of Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Odesa. [British Broadcasting Corporation. (updated 24 February 2022). Ukraine conflict: what we know about the invasion. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60504334]

In response to these events, the Slavic Linguistics Society issued the following statement:

Position Statement on the Russian Invasion of Ukraine

We, the Slavic Linguistics Society, are an international organization dedicated to scholarship of the Slavic languages and focused on encouraging research across a broad variety of domains in the field of Slavic Linguistics. A cornerstone of our organization and one of its founding principles is that, in contrast to other groups, the Slavic Linguistics Society maintains a panoptic approach to Slavic linguistic scholarship. We embrace research in all subfields, from various theoretical and analytical perspectives, and addressing any and all of the languages across the kaleidoscopic spectrum of Slavic. Truly, the single unifying feature of our multifaceted and diverse membership is that fundamentally we are all Slavists.

As Slavists, we are placed unequivocally within the sphere of Slavic culture and life, and therefore inevitably, politics. As such, we are not only in a position to address the ongoing situation in Ukraine, but we are under a clear ethical obligation to do so.

The Slavic Linguistics Society stands firmly in solidarity with Ukraine. We recognize Ukraine's linguistic, cultural, and political autonomy, and its consequent rights to self-determination and self-governance without the interference or intervention of outside entities. We consider the current military intervention led by President Putin to be a transparent transgression of those rights, and we therefore condemn it.

We acknowledge and support the large and growing body of dissenting Russian and Belorusian citizens and nationals, who by their opposition to President Putin's actions and to the complicity of their governments put themselves at great personal risk.

Furthermore, the Slavic Linguistics Society is morally supportive of our members, colleagues, friends, and associates who are currently in Ukraine and who find themselves in the midst of battle. We stand in steadfast solidarity with them.

This is the formal position of the Slavic Linguistics Society, which may differ from that of individual members and affiliates.

Drafted on February 24, 2022 (PT)
First Updated on February 26, 2022 (PT)
By the Slavic Linguistics Society Executive Board