More Basic Questions of Linguistics

In the spring of 1970, the Cornell linguistics faculty prepared a list of basic questions that graduate students could use as a guide for reading and study. Finding it incomplete, Prof. Charles Elliott prepared the following supplementary list

Thematic Knight\u27s Tour Quotes

Knight\u27s Tour Quotes (KTQs), also called Knight\u27s Tour Crypts, are a word puzzle enjoying a new vogue in the National Puzzlers\u27 League since David Silverman reintroduced them in 1973. Dmitri Borgmann presented some examples in Chesswords in the May 1974 Word Ways. A KTQ is a quote written out along a knight\u27s tour. It is a form, usually rectangular, with each square containing a single letter or punctuation mark. Stepping from letter to letter by knight\u27s moves (two squares horizontally or vertically, then one square perpendicular to that), visiting all letters once, one can spell out a message. To reduce the task from drudgery to pleasure, the starting letter is underlined and the word lengths and punctuation of the message are given

What\u27s the Good Word?

What is an acceptable word? has been the topic of a number of Word Ways articles. Answers range from a Pocket Dictionary main entry (for certain problems) to anything remotely wordlike (see The Ultimate Adventure elsewhere in this issue). I think, however, that it makes more sense to change the question to what is acceptability? noting that (1) words vary in acceptability, (2) the unacceptability line will be drawn at different points in the continuum by different people, or for different problems, and (3) a word\u27s acceptability has at least two dimensions, centrality and reliability, which depend strongly on its source. Clearly defined scales of acceptability will not resolve the question, since people will disagree on the importance of this factor or that, but they should at least clarify discussions of the problem

The use of drug calendars for the diagnosis of cutaneous drug eruptions in the age of electronic medical records

A morbilliform drug eruption is the most common condition leading to a dermatology consultation for a patient in the hospital. Timing is an important diagnostic tool since the onset of a skin rash usually takes place within days-to-weeks of the start of the implicated drug. A comprehensive, thorough, and reliable drug history by the clinician is essential. Therefore, to assist in the task of determining the causative medication of a new skin rash in a hospitalized patient, the creation of a drug calendar is recommended. The development of an electronic version of the drug calendar offers several benefits over the manual version. As the use of electronic medical records continues to become the standard in medicine, the electronic drug calendar will serve as an invaluable tool for the diagnosis of drug hypersensitivity

Developing SocArXiv: a new open archive of the social sciences to challenge the outdated journal system.

While STEM disciplines have developed a number of mechanisms to challenge the time-lags and paywalls of traditional academic publishing, options in the social sciences remain few and far between. Philip Cohen of the University of Maryland argues a cultural shift is taking place in the social sciences. He introduces SocArxiv, a fast, free, open paper server to encourage wider open scholarship in the social sciences

The next stage of SocArXiv's development: bringing greater transparency and efficiency to the peer review process

Almost 1,500 papers have been uploaded to SocArXiv since its launch last year. Up to now the platform has operated alongside the peer-review journal system rather than seriously disrupting it. Looking ahead to the next stage of its development, Philip Cohen considers how SocArXiv might challenge the peer review system to be more efficient and transparent, firstly by confronting the bias that leads many who benefit from the status quo to characterise mooted alternatives as extreme. The value and implications of openness at the various decision points in the system must be debated, as should potentially more disruptive innovations such as non-exclusive review and publication or crowdsourcing reviews