Chinese Language and Discourse | An International and Interdisciplinary Journal

Volume 16 (2025)

Volume 15 (2024)

Volume 14 (2023)

Volume 13 (2022)

Volume 12 (2021)

Volume 11 (2020)

Volume 10 (2019)

Volume 9 (2018)

Volume 8 (2017)

Volume 7 (2016)

Volume 6 (2015)

Volume 5 (2014)

Volume 4 (2013)

Volume 3 (2012)

Volume 2 (2011)

Volume 1 (2010)

Author Information

Please provide author(s) information in a separate file, which should include the following:
name, affiliation, regular postal address, and email address.

Language

Contributions should be consistent in their use of language and spelling; for instance, an article in English should be in British English or American English consistently throughout. It is advised to have the text checked by a native speaker.

Likewise, the use of simplified or traditional Chinese characters, where needed, should be consistent throughout.

Electronic files

A hard copy is recommended but not required. If you provide a PDF file by way of a hard copy, please make sure that all fonts are embedded when generating the PDF. This PDF cannot be used as input for typesetting and does not replace the need to provide a word processing file (in Word or such).

Graphic files

Please supply figures as Encapsulated Postscript (EPS) or Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) conversion in addition to the original creation files. Please note that the typesetters cannot make corrections or changes in figures that are supplied as graphics.

Margins

Please use ample margins and 1.5 line spacing.

Running heads

It is not necessary to add running heads in the articles. However, in case of a long title please ask the author to suggest a short one for the running head (max. 55 characters) on the cover sheet of their contribution.

Font

Font setting for text: Times New Roman 12 pts.
Font setting for tables: Times New Roman 10 pts (absolute minimum: 8 pts).

Abstract and Keywords

Each article starts with an English abstract (max. 150 words in a single paragraph; not needed for book reviews) and a listing of keywords in both English and Chinese.

Text

It is not necessary to implement full justification or hyphenation. It is sufficient to characterise elements such as examples, quotations, tables, headings etc. in the formatting in a clear and consistent way, so that they can be identified and formatted in the style of the journal. Formatting that should be included before submitting for production is the formatting of references and font enhancements (such as italics, bold, caps, small caps, etc.) in the text itself.

Whatever formatting or style conventions are employed, please be consistent.

Sections and headings

Articles should be reasonably divided into sections and, if necessary, into sub-sections. If you cannot use electronic styles, please mark the headings as follows:

Level 1 = bold italics, 1 line space before, section number flush left. Text immediately below .
Level 2 = italics, 1 line space before, section number flush left. Text immediately below.
Level 3ff = italics, 1 line space before, section number flush left. Heading ends with a full stop, with the text following on the same line.

Numbering should be in Arabic numerals; no italics; no dot after the last number, except for level 1 headings.

Tables and figures

All tables, trees and figures must fit within the following page size (if necessary, after – limited – reduction) and should still be legible at this size:
11.5 cm (≈ 4.5”) x 19 cm (≈7.5”).

Suggested font setting for tables: Times Roman 10 pts (absolute minimum: 8 pts).

Tables and figures should be numbered consecutively, provided with appropriate captions and should be referred to in the main text in this manner, e.g., “in table 2”, but never like this “in the following table: ...” .

Emphasis and foreign words

Use italics for foreign language, highlighting and emphasis. Bold should be used only for highlighting within italics and for headings. Please refrain from the use of FULL CAPS (except for focal stress and abbreviations) and underlining (except for highlighting within examples, as an alternative for boldface), unless this is a strict convention in your field of research. For terms or expressions (e.g., ‘context of situation’) please use single quotes. For glosses of citation forms use double quotes.

Quotations

In the main text quotations should be given in double quotation marks. Quotations longer than 3 lines should be indented left and right, without quotations marks and with the appropriate reference to the source. They should be set off from the main text by a line of space above and below.

Listings

Listings should not be indented. If numbered, please number as follows:

1. ..................... or a. .......................
2. ..................... or b. .......................

Listings that run on with the main text can be numbered in parentheses: (1).............., (2)............., etc.

Examples and glosses

Examples should be numbered with Arabic numerals (1,2,3, etc.) in parentheses.

Chinese examples should be in either simplified or traditional characters consistently. Presentation of Chinese examples should follow the following format:

Line 1: Chinese character (optional)
Line 2: pinyin
Line 3: word by word gloss
Line 4: free English translation (in single quote)

In-text Chinese examples should be in pinyin and in italics; an approximate translation should be provided. IPA may be used for the phonetic representation of non-standard dialects.

Between the original and the translation, glosses can be added. This interlinear gloss gets no punctuation and no highlighting. For the abbreviations in the interlinear gloss, CAPS or small caps can be used, which will be converted to small caps by our typesetters in final formatting.

We advise the use of the Leipzig Glossing Rules.

Notes

Notes should be kept to a minimum. Note indicators in the text should appear at the end of sentences and follow punctuation marks.

Funding information

Funding information should be provided if funding was received through a grant for the research that is discussed in the article, including funder name and grant number, in a separate section called "Funding information" before (an Acknowledgment section and) the References.

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments (other than funding information, see above) should be added in a separate, unnumbered section entitled "Acknowledgments", placed before the References.

References

It is essential that the references are formatted to the specifications given in these guidelines, as these cannot be formatted automatically. This book series uses the ‘Author-Date’ style as described in the latest edition of The Chicago Manual of Style.
References in the text: These should be as precise as possible, giving page references where necessary; for example (Clahsen 1991, 252) or: as in Brown et al. (1991, 252). All references in the text should appear in the references section.
References section: References should be listed first alphabetically and then chronologically. The section should include all (and only!) references that are actually mentioned in the text.
A note on capitalization in titles. For titles in English, CMS uses headline-style capitalization. In titles and subtitles, capitalize the first and last words, and all other major words (nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, some conjunctions). Do not capitalize articles; prepositions (unless used adverbially or adjectivally, or as part of a Latin expression used adverbially or adjectivally); the conjunctions and, but, for, or, nor; to as part of an infinitive; as in any grammatical function; parts of proper names that would be lower case in normal text; the second part of a species name. For more details and examples, consult the Chicago Manual of Style. For any other languages, and English translations of titles given in square brackets, CMS uses sentence-style capitalization: capitalization as in normal prose, i.e., the first word in the title, the subtitle, and any proper names or other words normally given initial capitals in the language in question.

Examples

Book:

Görlach, Manfred. 2003. English Words Abroad. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Spear, Norman E., and Ralph R. Miller (eds). 1981. Information Processing in Animals: Memory Mechanisms. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Article (in book):

Adams, Clare A., and Anthony Dickinson. 1981. “Actions and Habits: Variation in Associative Representation during Instrumental Learning.” In Information Processing in Animals: Memory Mechanisms, ed. by Norman E. Spear, and Ralph R. Miller, 143–186. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Article (in journal):

Claes, Jeroen, and Luis A. Ortiz López. 2011. “Restricciones pragmáticas y sociales en la expresión de futuridad en el español de Puerto Rico [Pragmatic and social restrictions in the expression of the future in Puerto Rican Spanish].” Spanish in Context 8: 50–72.

Rayson, Paul, Geoffrey N. Leech, and Mary Hodges. 1997. “Social Differentiation in the Use of English Vocabulary: Some Analyses of the Conversational Component of the British National Corpus.” International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 2 (1): 120–132.

Appendixes

Appendixes should follow the References section.

Other

a) Authors are requested to check accepted manuscripts very carefully before final submission in order to avoid delays and extra costs at the proof stage. Page proofs will be sent to the first author and must be corrected and returned within seven days of receipt. Author alterations other than typographical corrections in the page proofs may be charged to the author at the publisher's discretion.

b) Authors will receive a PDF file of their contribution and a complimentary copy of the issue in which their article has appeared. (In the case of multiple authors, the PDF file will be sent to the first named author.)

Manuscripts can be submitted through the journal's online submission and manuscript tracking site. Please consult the Short Guide to EM for Authors before you submit your paper.

If you are not able to submit online, or for any other editorial correspondence, please contact the editors by e-mail: cld.editorsgmail.com

Manuscripts can be submitted through the journal's online submission and manuscript tracking site. Please consult the guidelines and the Short Guide to EM for Authors before you submit your paper.

If you are not able to submit online, or for any other editorial correspondence, please contact the editors by e-mail: cld.editorsgmail.com

Articles under consideration are double-blind peer-reviewed and decisions on all published content are made by the editors.

Ethics

John Benjamins journals are committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics and to supporting ethical research practices.

Authors and reviewers are kindly requested to read this Ethics Statement .

Please also note the guidance on the use of (generative) AI in the statement.

Rights and Permissions

Authors must ensure that they have permission to use any third-party material in their contribution; the permission should include perpetual (not time-limited) world-wide distribution in print and electronic format.

For information on authors' rights, please consult the rights information page.

Open Access

Articles accepted for this journal can be made Open Access through payment of an Article Publication Charge (APC) of EUR 1800 (excl. tax). To arrange this, please contact openaccessbenjamins.nl once your paper has been accepted for publication. More information can be found on the publisher's Open Access Policy page.

Corresponding authors from institutions with which John Benjamins has a Read & Publish arrangement can publish Open Access without paying a fee. Please consult this list of institutions for up-to-date information on which articles qualify.

For information about permission to post a version of your article online or in an institutional repository ('green' open access or self-archiving), please consult the rights information page.

If the article is not (to be made) Open Access, there is no fee for the author to publish in this journal.

Archiving

John Benjamins Publishing Company has an agreement in place with Portico for the archiving of all its online journals and e-books.

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