Authors are requested to submit their papers electronically by using the Lingua online submission and review web site (http://ees.elsevier.com/lingua).
This site will guide authors stepwise through the submission process. Authors are requested to submit the text, tables, and artwork in
electronic form to this address. Authors who are unable to provide an electronic version or have other circumstances that prevent online
submission must contact the Editor prior to submission to discuss alternative options; email: J.E.C.V.rooryck@let.leidenuniv.nl.
Articles can be submitted in English, French or German. The Publisher and Editors regret that they are not able to consider submissions
that do not follow these procedures.
Special issues Persons interested in developing a special issue should contact the
Editor at the above email address.
Submission of articles
General It is essential to give a fax number and
e-mail address when submitting a manuscript. Articles must be written in good English, French or German.
Submission of an article
implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture
or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and
tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published
elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, without the written consent of the copyright holder.
Upon acceptance
of an article, authors will be asked to sign a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' (for more information on this and copyright see: http://www.elsevier.com/copyright).
Acceptance of the agreement will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. An e-mail (or letter) will be sent to the corresponding
author confirming receipt of the manuscript together with a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' form or a link to the online version of this
agreement.
Subscribers may reproduce tables of contents or prepare lists of articles including abstracts for internal circulation
within their institutions. Permission of the Publisher is required for resale or distribution outside the institution and for all other
derivative works, including compilations and translations (please consult: http://www.elsevier.com/permissions).
If
excerpts from other copyrighted works are included, the author(s) must obtain written permission from the copyright owners and credit
the source(s) in the article. Elsevier has preprinted forms for use by authors in these cases; please consult: http://www.elsevier.com/permissions.
Funding body agreements and policies Elsevier has established agreements and developed policies to allow authors who publish
in Elsevier journals to comply with potential manuscript archiving requirements as specified as conditions of their grant awards. To
learn more about existing agreements and policies please visit: http://www.elsevier.com/fundingbodies.
Authors' rights As an author you (or your employer or institution) retain certain rights; for details you are referred to: http://www.elsevier.com/authorsrights.
Role of the funding source You are requested to identify
who provided financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation of the article and to briefly describe the role of
the sponsor(s), if any, in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in
the decision to submit the paper for publication. If the funding source(s) had no such involvement then this should be stated. Please
see: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authorshome.authors/funding for more information.
Contributors All
authors must have materially participated in the research and/or article preparation. The statement that all authors have approved the
final article should be true and included in the disclosure.
Conflict of interest All authors are requested to disclose
any actual or potential conflict of interest including any financial, personal or other relationships with other people or organizations
within three years of beginning the submitted work that could inappropriately influence, or be perceived to influence, their work. For
further information, please see: http://www.elsevier.com/conflictsofinterest.
Online submission to the journal
prior to acceptance Submission to this journal proceeds totally online. Use the following guidelines to prepare your article.
Via the EES homepage of this journal (http://ees.elsevier.com/lingua) you will be guided stepwise through the creation and
uploading of the various files. The system automatically converts source files to a single Adobe Acrobat PDF version of the article,
which is used in the peer-review process. Please note that even though manuscript source files are converted to PDF at submission for
the review process, these source files are needed for further processing after acceptance. All correspondence, including notification
of the Editor's decision and requests for revision, takes place by e-mail and via the author's homepage, removing the need for a hard-copy
paper trail.
The above represents a very brief outline of this form of submission. It can be advantageous to print this "Guide for
Authors" section from the site for reference in the subsequent stages of article preparation.
Electronic format requirements
for final accepted articles
General points We accept most wordprocessing formats, but Word, WordPerfect or LaTeX
is preferred. Always keep a backup copy of the electronic file for reference and safety. Save your files using the default extension
of the program used.
Wordprocessor documents It is important that the file be saved in the native format of the wordprocessor
used. The text should be in single-column format. Keep the layout of the text as simple as possible. Most formatting codes will be removed
and replaced on processing the article. In particular, do not use the wordprocessor's options to justify text or to hyphenate words.
However, do use bold face, italics, subscripts, superscripts, etc. Do not embed "graphically designed" equations or tables, but prepare
these using the wordprocessor's facility. When preparing tables, if you are using a table grid, use only one grid for each individual
table and not a grid for each row. If no grid is used, use tabs, not spaces, to align columns. The electronic text should be prepared
in a way very similar to that of conventional manuscripts (see also the Guide to Publishing with Elsevier: http://www.elsevier.com/guidepublication).
Do not import the figures into the text file but, instead, indicate their approximate locations directly in the electronic text and on
the manuscript. See also the section below on the preparation of electronic illustrations.
To avoid unnecessary errors you are strongly
advised to use the "spell-check" and "grammar-check" functions of your wordprocessor.
Preparation of text
Presentation
of manuscript
General Please write your text in good English (American or British usage is accepted, but not
a mixture of these), French or German. Italics are not to be used for expressions of Latin origin, for example, in vivo, et al., per
se. Use decimal points (not commas); use a space for thousands (10 000 and above). Number all pages consecutively.
Authors are advised
to consult a recent issue of the journal (a free sample copy is available online at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00243841)
to become familiar with layout and conventions. Articles should be double-spaced throughout and should be no longer than 20,000 words
(excluding tables).
Review Policy As this journal has adopted a blind reviewing policy, please remove all identifying
features from the paper itself by ensuring that no author's name appears in the main text, in-text citations, reference list, or
filename. Replace all references to the author with "Author, 2003", "Author et al, 2006", etc. The title of the article and the name
of the journal, or book, etc., should also be removed from these references. Authors are requested to include their name, the title of
their article and their full contact details on a separate title page as detailed below.
Language Services Authors
who require information about language editing and copyediting services pre- and post-submission please visit: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/languagepolishing
or contact: authorsupport@elsevier.com for more information. Please note Elsevier neither endorses nor takes responsibility
for any products, goods or services offered by outside vendors through our services or in any advertising. For more information please
refer to our Terms & Conditions (http://www.elsevier.com/termsandconditions).
Separate title page Provide
the following data on the (separate) title page (in the order given).
Title. Concise and informative. Titles are often used
in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible.
Author names and affiliations. Where
the family name may be ambiguous (e.g. a double name), please indicate this clearly. Present the authors' affiliation addresses (where
the actual work was done) below the names. Indicate all affiliations with a lower-case superscript letter immediately after the author's
name and in front of the appropriate address. Provide the full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name, and, if
available, the e-mail address of each author.
Corresponding author. Clearly indicate who is willing to handle correspondence
at all stages of refereeing and publication, also post-publication. Ensure that telephone and fax numbers (with country and area code)
are provided in addition to the e-mail address and the complete postal address.
Present/permanent address. If an author
has moved since the work described in the article was done, or was visiting at the time, a "Present address" (or "Permanent address")
may be indicated as a footnote to that author's name. The address at which the author actually did the work must be retained as the main,
affiliation address. Superscript Arabic numerals are used for such footnotes.
Abstract. A concise and factual abstract is
required (of no more than 200 words). The abstract should state briefly the purpose of the research, the principal results and
major conclusions. An abstract is often presented separate from the article, so it must be able to stand alone. References should therefore
be avoided, but if essential, they must be cited in full, without reference to the reference list. Non-standard or uncommon abbreviations
should be avoided, but if essential they must be defined at their first mention in the abstract itself.
Keywords. Immediately
after the abstract, provide a maximum of 6 keywords, avoiding general and plural terms and multiple concepts (avoid, for example,
"and", "of"). Be sparing with abbreviations: only abbreviations firmly established in the field may be eligible. These keywords will
be used for indexing purposes.
Abbreviations. Define abbreviations that are not standard in this field at their first occurrence
in the article: in the abstract but also in the main text after it. Ensure consistency of abbreviations throughout the article.
N.B.
Acknowledgements. Collate acknowledgements in a separate section at the end of the article and do not, therefore, include
them on the title page, as a footnote to the title or otherwise.
Arrangement of the article Subdivision of
the article. Divide your article into clearly defined and numbered sections. Subsections should be numbered 1.1 (then 1.1.1, 1.1.2,
?), 1.2, etc. (the abstract is not included in section numbering). Use this numbering also for internal cross-referencing: do not just
refer to "the text." Any subsection may be given a brief heading. Each heading should appear on its own separate line.
Introduction.
State the objectives of the work and provide an adequate background, avoiding a detailed literature survey or a summary of the results.
Experimental/Materials and methods. Provide sufficient detail to allow the work to be reproduced. Methods already published
should be indicated by a reference: only relevant modifications should be described.
Results. Results should be clear and
concise.
Discussion. This should explore the significance of the results of the work, not repeat them. A combined Results
and Discussion section is often appropriate. Avoid extensive citations and discussion of published literature.
Conclusions.
The main conclusions of the study may be presented in a short Conclusions section, which may stand alone or form a subsection of a Discussion
or Results and Discussion section.
Acknowledgements. Place acknowledgements before the references, in a separate section,
and not as a footnote on the title page.
Appendices. If there is more than one appendix, they should be identified as A,
B, etc.
References. See separate section, below.
Figure captions, tables, figures, schemes. Present these,
in this order, at the end of the article. They are described in more detail below. High-resolution graphics files must always be provided
separate from the main text file (see the section below on the preparation of illustrations). State the number of legends, tables, figures,
schemes occurring in the article in the email message or the letter accompanying your paper.
Text graphics. Present incidental
graphics not suitable for mention as figures, plates or schemes at the end of the article and number them "Graphic 1", etc. Their precise
position in the text can then be indicated. See further under the section concerning the preparation of electronic illustrations. Ensure
that high-resolution graphics files are provided, even if the graphic appears as part of your normal wordprocessed text file.
Specific
remarks Footnotes. Footnotes should be used sparingly. Number them consecutively throughout the article, using
superscript Arabic numbers. Many wordprocessors build footnotes into the text, and this feature may be used. Should this not be the case,
indicate the position of footnotes in the text and present the footnotes themselves separately at the end of the article. Do not include
footnotes in the Reference list.
Table footnotes. Indicate each footnote in a table with a superscript lowercase letter.
Tables. Number tables consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text. Place footnotes to tables below the
table body and indicate them with superscript lowercase letters. Avoid vertical rules. Be sparing in the use of tables and ensure that
the data presented in tables do not duplicate results described elsewhere in the article.
Nomenclature. Please supply, as
a separate list, the definitions of field-specific terms used in your article.
Conventions. Cited forms of the language
discussed should be italicized in the main text, and in the example sentences. Glosses are added directly after the cited form, between
single quotes: ' . . .'. An asterisk precedes reconstructed, hypothetical or non-occurring forms.
Phonetic transcription.
In your choice of phonetic symbols, please adhere to IPA conventions. The SIL Charis IPA font is preferred for the presentation of IPA
symbols (for more information, please visit: http://scripts.sil.org/CharisSILfont).
Preparation of supplementary
data. Elsevier accepts supplementary material to support and enhance your scientific research. Supplementary files offer the author
additional possibilities to publish supporting applications, movies, animation sequences, high-resolution images, background datasets,
sound clips and more. Supplementary files supplied will be published online alongside the electronic version of your article in Elsevier
Web products, including ScienceDirect (http://www.sciencedirect.com). In order to ensure that your submitted material is
directly usable, please ensure that data is provided in one of our recommended file formats. Authors should submit the material in electronic
format together with the article and supply a concise and descriptive caption for each file. For more detailed instructions please visit
our artwork instruction pages at: http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.
References Responsibility
for the accuracy of bibliographic citations lies entirely with the authors.
Citations in the text: Please ensure that every
reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). Any references cited in the abstract must be given
in full. Unpublished results and personal communications are not recommended in the reference list, but may be mentioned in the text.
If these references are included in the reference list they should follow the standard reference style of the journal and should include
a substitution of the publication date with either "Unpublished results" or "Personal communication". Citation of a reference as "in
press" implies that the item has been accepted for publication.
Citing and listing of Web references. As a minimum, the
full URL should be given. Any further information, if known (DOI, author names, dates, reference to a source publication, etc.), should
also be given. Web references can be listed separately (e.g., after the reference list) under a different heading if desired, or can
be included in the reference list.
Text: All citations in the text should refer to: 1. Single author: the author's
name (without initials, unless there is ambiguity) and the year of publication; 2. Two authors: both authors' names and the year
of publication; 3. Three or more authors: first author's name followed by "et al." and the year of publication. Citations may
be made directly (or parenthetically). Groups of references should be listed first alphabetically, then chronologically. If quoting from
a reference, page numbers should also be indicated; e.g. "(Pullman 1996:21)".
Examples: "as demonstrated (Allan, 1996a, 1996b, 1999;
Allan and Jones, 1995). Kramer et al. (2000) have recently shown ...."
List: References should be arranged first alphabetically
and then further sorted chronologically if necessary. If there are more than 3 authors, list only the first author followed by et al.
More than one reference from the same author(s) in the same year must be identified by the letters "a", "b", "c", etc., placed after
the year of publication.
Examples:
Reference to a journal publication: Wilson, D., Sperber , D., 1992. On verbal
irony. Lingua 87, 53-76.
Reference to a book: Chomsky, N., 1995. The Minimalist Program. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Reference
to a chapter in an edited book: Szabolcsi, A., 1994. The noun phrase. In: Kiefer, F., Kiss, K. (Eds.), Syntax and Semantics: The
Syntactic Structure of Hungarian, vol. 27. Academic Press, New York, pp. 179-274.
DOI numbers The digital object identifier
(DOI) may be used to cite and link to electronic documents. The DOI consists of a unique alpha-numeric character string which is assigned
to a document by the publisher upon the initial electronic publication. The assigned DOI never changes. Therefore, it is an ideal medium
for citing a document, particularly 'Articles in press' because they have not yet received their full bibliographic information.
The
correct format for citing a DOI is shown as follows (example taken from a document in the journal Physics Letters B):
doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2003.10.071
When you use the DOI to create URL hyperlinks to documents on the web, they are guaranteed never to change.
Preparation of
illustrations
Preparation of electronic illustrations
General points - Make sure you use uniform
lettering and sizing of your original artwork. - Save text in illustrations as "graphics" or enclose the font. - Only use the
following fonts in your illustrations: Arial, Courier, Helvetica, Times, Symbol. - Number the illustrations according to their sequence
in the text. - Use a logical naming convention for your artwork files. - Provide all illustrations as separate files. - Provide
captions to illustrations separately. - Produce images near to the desired size of the printed version.
You are urged to visit this site;
some excerpts from the detailed information are given here.
Formats Regardless of the application used, when your electronic artwork is finalised, please "save as" or convert the images to one of the following formats (Note the resolution requirements
for line drawings, halftones, and line/halftone combinations given below.):
EPS: Vector drawings. Embed the font or save the text
as "graphics". TIFF: Colour or greyscale photographs (halftones): always use a minimum of 300 dpi. TIFF: Bitmapped line drawings:
use a minimum of 1000 dpi. TIFF: Combinations bitmapped line/half-tone (colour or greyscale): a minimum of 500 dpi is required. DOC,
XLS or PPT: If your electronic artwork is created in any of these Microsoft Office applications please supply "as is".
Please
do not: - Supply embedded graphics in your wordprocessor (spreadsheet, presentation) document; - Supply files that are optimised
for screen use (like GIF, BMP, PICT, WPG); the resolution is too low; - Supply files that are too low in resolution; - Submit
graphics that are disproportionately large for the content.
Captions Ensure that each illustration has a caption. Supply
captions separately, not attached to the figure. A caption should comprise a brief title (not on the figure itself) and a description
of the illustration. Keep text in the illustrations themselves to a minimum but explain all symbols and abbreviations used.
Line
drawings The lettering and symbols, as well as other details, should have proportionate dimensions, so as not to become illegible
or unclear after possible reduction; in general, the figures should be designed for a reduction factor of two to three. The degree of
reduction will be determined by the Publisher. Illustrations will not be enlarged. Consider the page format of the journal when designing
the illustrations.
Do not use any type of shading on computer-generated illustrations.
Photographs (halftones) Remove
non-essential areas of a photograph. Do not mount photographs unless they form part of a composite figure. Where necessary, insert a
scale bar in the illustration (not below it), as opposed to giving a magnification factor in the caption.
Colour illustrations Please make sure that artwork files are in an acceptable format (TIFF, EPS or MS Office files) and with the correct resolution. If,
together with your accepted article, you submit usable colour figures then Elsevier will ensure that these figures will appear in colour
on the Web for free (e.g., ScienceDirect and other sites) regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour
in the printed version. For colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Elsevier after receipt
of your accepted article. Please indicate your preference for colour in print or on the Web only. For further information on the preparation
of electronic artwork, please see http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.
Please note: Because of technical complications
which can arise by converting colour figures to "grey scale" (for the printed version should you not opt for colour in print) please
submit in addition usable black and white versions of all the colour illustrations.
Proofs One set of page proofs in PDF
format will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding author (if we do not have an e-mail address then paper proofs will be sent by post).
Elsevier now sends PDF proofs which can be annotated; for this you will need to download Adobe Reader version 7 (or higher) available
free from: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html. Instructions on how to annotate PDF files will accompany
the proofs. The exact system requirements are given at the Adobe site: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/acrrsystemreqs.html#70win.
If you do not wish to use the PDF annotations function, you may list the corrections (including replies to the Query Form) and return
to Elsevier in an e-mail. Please list your corrections quoting line numbers. If, for any reason, this is not possible, then mark the
corrections and any other comments (including replies to the Query Form) on a printout of your proof and return by fax, or scan the pages
and e-mail, or by post.
Please use this proof only for checking the typesetting, editing, completeness and correctness of the text,
tables and figures. Significant changes to the article as accepted for publication will only be considered at this stage with permission
from the Editor. We will do everything possible to get your article published quickly and accurately. Therefore, it is important to ensure
that all of your corrections are sent back to us in one communication: please check carefully before replying, as inclusion of any subsequent
corrections cannot be guaranteed. Proofreading is solely your responsibility. Note that Elsevier may proceed with the publication of
your article if no response is received.
Author Benefits
Offprints The corresponding author, at no cost, will
be provided with a PDF file of the article via e-mail or, alternatively, 25 free paper offprints. The PDF file is a watermarked version
of the published article and includes a cover sheet with the journal cover image and a disclaimer outlining the terms and conditions
of use. Additional paper offprints can be ordered by the authors. An order form with prices will be sent to the corresponding author.
Discount Authors are entitled to a 30% discount on Elsevier books (excluding major reference works).
Fast Electronic
Publication Once the article has been proofed by the author, it will be published immediately on the journal's 'Articles in Press'
section on ScienceDirect, thus making it available to subscribers to read and cite. For more information, visit: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00243841.
Author Enquiries For enquiries relating to the submission of articles, please visit the journal's homepage at: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/lingua.
From here you can also track your accepted articles (http://authors.elsevier.com/TrackPaper.html) and set up e-mail alerts
to inform you of when an article's status has changed, as well as viewing detailed artwork guidelines, copyright information, frequently
asked questions and more. Contact details for questions arising after acceptance of an article, especially those relating to proofs,
are provided after registration of an article for publication.
