The Journal
Dilim is a peer-reviewed, open access journal that publishes squibs in theoretical linguistics. This genre, long established in theoretical linguistics, stands at the centre of Dilim's publication programme. The basic criterion for publication is that the data explicitly test a theoretical question; in every paper this test is carried out in a mandatory section headed "Düğüm" (Knot).
Rationale
The squib developed as a genre for bringing an observation into theoretical discussion by a short route. In most journals that publish squibs, the genre occupies a limited section beside long articles. Dilim establishes a venue devoted to the genre and adjusts its review schedule to the length of a squib: the first decision is given within five weeks at the latest. Papers in Turkish and in English go through the same process, which makes it easier for data produced in Türkiye and on the Turkic languages to enter theoretical discussion directly.
Fields
Dilim accepts submissions in the following seven fields; field editorships follow the same division.
- Formal syntax and morphology: the Minimalist Program, Distributed Morphology, HPSG, LFG, Categorial Grammar and other formal frameworks.
- Semantics and pragmatics: formal semantics (including dynamic approaches and DRT), lexical semantics, pragmatic theory, experimental pragmatics.
- Cognitive linguistics: Construction Grammar, usage-based models, conceptual metaphor theory.
- Phonology and phonetics: Optimality Theory and other phonological theories, prosodic modelling, the phonetics-phonology interface.
- Historical and comparative linguistics: formal models of syntactic and morphological change, parameter theory, grammaticalization, contact-induced change, theoretical problems of reconstruction.
- Computational linguistics: the interface between language models and linguistic theory; studies in which a computational method tests a theoretical proposal.
- Forensic linguistics and legal language: the testing of semantic and pragmatic theories on legal texts; other forensic linguistic studies connected to theory.
Data
Dilim is open to data from any language. It makes particular room for data from the Turkic languages and from the Eurasian languages in historical or present contact with them; researchers working on these languages are represented in the reviewer pool and on the advisory board. This emphasis does not narrow the scope: whatever language the data come from, a paper is assessed by whether it tests a theoretical question.
Out of Scope
Papers that do not test a theoretical question are out of scope, whatever their subject, and are returned at the preliminary review. The principle chiefly excludes descriptions without an established theoretical connection; papers on language teaching and teaching methods; translation comparisons and sociolinguistic surveys that do not fit a theoretical framework; NLP engineering papers; corpus reports that offer only frequency counts; and philological and text-edition studies not connected to theory.
Publication Frequency
Dilim publishes two issues a year (June and December). Accepted papers are published online without waiting for an issue, within one week of acceptance at the latest, and are then collected in the relevant issue. Each issue contains 6 to 10 dilims and one invited article; replies are not counted in this number.
Open Access and Fees
Dilim is a Diamond open access journal: no submission, review or publication fee is charged to authors, and no access fee to readers. Papers are published under the CC BY 4.0 licence, and copyright remains with the author.