We are working on the style guidelines for Semantics and Pragmatics. Some help comes from the fact that there is now a Unified Style Sheet for Linguistics Journals — downloadable as a pdf file from LINGUIST List. The pdf version is marred by some change-tracking, so hopefully a cleaner version will be available soon.

Note that the style sheet really only concerns the formatting of reference lists at the end of article. Other formatting remains non-unified and each journal has their own house-style.

We will probably adopt the unified style sheet lock, stock, and barrel, except for one egregious mistake:

12. Names with “von”, “van”, “de”, etc. If the “van” (or the “de” or other patronymic) is lower case and separated from the rest by a space (e.g. Elly van Gelderen), then alphabetize by the first upper-case element:

Gelderen, Elly van

The addition of “see …” in comprehensive indices and lists might be helpful for clarification:

van Gelderen, Elly (see Gelderen)

There is really no excuse for mangling the names of the von/van clan. My own thoughts on this have been available for quite a while.

We will of course list Elly under “G” in the alphabet but with “van Gelderen, Elly” as her full name, since “van Gelderen” is her last name. If any member of the clan has divergent special wishes as to the treatment of his/her name, we should be able to accommodate that. Questions 7 through 12 in the BibTeX Tips and FAQ document give some very useful advice for some peculiar requirements.