Quantitative Aspects ofJournal of Quantitative Linguistics

Abstract

As one of the most authoritative journals in the field of quantitative linguistics, the Journal of Quantitative Linguistics has just passed its 20th birthday. In this paper, we collect information from the 20 volumes of this journal published so far (1994)(1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013) to build a corpus, then extract different categories of information using corpus tools. By quantitative analysis of the corpus data, complemented with information extracted from abstract and citation index databases such as Scopus and Web of Knowledge as important references, we aim to explore the objects, aims and methodologies of quantitative linguistics, its focuses and shifts in different periods, representative achievements in the past 20 years, and possible directions for the future. During the process, the role of JQL both in the development of quantitative linguistics and the wider scientific community are located and evaluated with quantitative-based evidence. The findings are that JQL contributes greatly to the development of quantitative linguistics and is in many aspects representative of changes in this field, keeping close pace with trends in the discipline and the ever-evolving characteristics of quantitative linguistics over the years.