Semantic Fieldwork Methods is a new online peer-reviewed journal, dedicated to the discussion of innovative techniques and materials for use in semantic, pragmatic and syntactic fieldwork. We invite contributions which explain and illustrate how hypotheses about meaning and about the syntax-semantics interface can be tested in a fieldwork setting. The prototypical article for Semantic Fieldwork Methods outlines a research question, presents materials which can be used in the investigation of this research question, and shows the results obtained in at least one language using the proposed methodology. For example, contributors might provide a storyboard (a set of connected pictures designed to elicit specific linguistic phenomena; see www.totemfieldstoryboards.org, Burton and Matthewson 2015). In such a paper the author would explain how the storyboard is designed to elicit the relevant data, present a story elicited using the storyboard in some language, outline and illustrate the follow-up elicitation questions which need to be asked, and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the proposed storyboard in obtaining useful data. Ideally, the elicitation materials presented in SFM papers will be replicable across a wide range of languages. We discourage the submission of questionnaires which rely solely on translation or which are otherwise language-dependent. We are currently inviting contributions for our first issue.

Please send anonymized papers to semantic.fieldwork@ubc.ca and provide author and affiliation information in the body of the email. Questions concerning submission can be addressed to the editors (Strang Burton, Patrick Littell and Lisa Matthewson) at the same email address.