Sections of Language

General Research Articles
General Research Articles are in-depth articles in any area of linguistics. Submissions must not exceed 18,000 words inclusive of notes, any charts and tables, and appendices, but excluding references. General Research Articles are expected to make a contribution to the development of linguistic theory, broadly defined to include all theoretical models and approaches to language. Since Language is a generalist journal, General Research Articles should be written to be accessible to a general linguistics audience. Although it is expected that core aspects of the analysis may not be accessible to non-specialists, even non-specialists should be able to grasp the gist of the research and should understand why the research is broadly important to linguistics. A Language General Research Article is therefore different than an article written for a specialist journal where it can be expected that potential readers share the same technical area specific expertise as the atuhor.

Research Reports
While a Research Report may appeal more to specialists, authors should still make every effort to make their manuscripts accessible to a general audience. The typical Research Report will make a smaller, more targeted contribution than a General Research Article (similar to the "squib" format in some other journals). This section publishes primarily two kinds of articles: (i) Data driven: Articles that report on interesting data that are relevant to current issues in linguistic theory, but that by themselves do not warrant development into a full-blown General Research Article. (ii) Methodological innovations: Articles that report on methodological innovations that can enable researchers to investigate new theoretically relevant questions. Although the expectation for making a contribution to the development of linguistic theory is lesser for a Research Report than a General Research Article, articles in this section are still expected to engage with the relevant theoretical literature, and to clearly communicate to readers how the data or the methodological innovation is theoretically relevant. A Research Report should be thematically appropriate to this section– that is, if a paper is submitted to this section it should be because the nature and topic of the paper make it unsuitable for development into a General Research Article. The Research Reports section is not intended as a publication venue for "work in progress". A Research Report should be less than 9,000 words in length inclusive of notes, any charts and tables, and appendices, but excluding references. 

Book Reviews
Book Reviews are reviews of recent Linguistic books. Book reviews are invited by the Book Review Editor, and unsolicited reviews are not accepted. For complete information about book reviews, consult this page.

Review Articles
Review Articles are longer, more substantive Book Reviews. Although Book Reviews are limited in length to 2,000 words, a Review Article can be up to 5,000 words in length (excluding references). Review Articles are reserved for books that are likely to make a significant impact on the field, and are typically written only by invitation from the editorial team. Individuals interested in writing a Review Article should contact the Book Review Editor.

Commentaries
Submissions to this online-only section reflect on developments in linguistic research, without necessarily making a novel research contribution in the submission itself.  This section includes discussions, replies, and letters to the editor.

Language and Public Policy
Language and Public Policy is an online section of Language that was established in 2013. It publishes original, high quality scholarship exploring and analyzing areas of public policy that benefit from the findings and methods of linguistics. More information about this section is available at this link.

Language Revitalization and Documentation
This section of Language was established in 2020 in recognition of the central importance of research focusing on language documentation and revitalization. More information about this section is available at this link.

Teaching Linguistics 
Teaching Linguistics is an online-only section of Language that invites submissions of original, high quality scholarship that analyzes a pedagogical issue, assesses a teaching technique, or reviews pedagogical materials related to the teaching of linguistics. More information about this section is available at this link.

Perspectives
This online-only section of Language is aimed at publishing articles that generate written responses.  Each contribution in this section will consist of a longer 'target article' and a collection of 'responses' to the target article. Target articles will be selected on the basis of quality, readability, and whether they are likely to invite further productive discussion of issues of general interest to the field. 

Responses up to 5,000 words in length (including refences and any appendices) in response to the target articles will be selected on the basis of whether they represent thoughtful perspectives that engage an issue raised by the article; we encourage preliminary submission of commentary abstracts up to three pages, as well as full commentaries.  Broadly negative responses are not encouraged; a discussion deepening our understanding of an issue should dominate the presentation.  Responses are selected on the basis of whether they collectively represent an informative diversity of perspectives. A second round of briefer responses may be published in a later volume of Language is warranted.

Submissions for target articles are often solicited by the editorial team. Altough unsolicited submissions of target articles will be accepted, you are encouraged to discuss any plans for submission with the editor before submission.  All target articles and responses should be submitted to this online portal with the Perspectives section selected. Reviewing will be done at the discretion of the editors.

Phonological Analysis 
Phonological Analysis has now become an independent LSA journal, Phonological Data and Analysis (PDA). Language therefore no longer accepts submissions to this online section. Interested authors are invited to contact the PDA editors by email at [email protected].

Historical Syntax
After several years as part of Language, this section has gone independent. The website for the new independent Journal of Historical Syntax is available here. Although we are no longer accepting new submissions to the Historical Syntax section of Language, we will continue to see through those manuscripts that are already in our editorial system.