Linguistic Inquiry (ISSN 0024-3892) is one of the most influential journals in theoretical linguistics, published by the MIT Press since 1970 and edited from its founding by Samuel Jay Keyser. It is the flagship journal of generative linguistics, publishing full-scale articles, shorter remarks and replies, and squibs — brief but precise theoretical observations. Many landmark articles in the field appeared first in its pages.
The three issues held here, from Volumes III and IV (1972–73), are among the journal's earliest numbers, covering a period of extraordinary activity in generative syntax and phonology. Contributors include Morris Halle, Paul Postal, Susumu Kuno, Joan Bresnan and Lauri Karttunen. They were donated by Ronald P. Schaefer, Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, whose gift also brought the Library its runs of Studies in African Linguistics, the Journal of African Languages and Linguistics and the Journal of West African Languages.
