7

MOUTON GETS STARTED

refers, furthermore, to the recent past of our science. Nicolaas van Wijk, whose name heads this set of essays, was one of the outstanding pioneers in the inquiry into the structure of language and into the principles of its evolution. [...] Van Wijk, and therein lies his main strength, never sacrificed the manifold empirical data in favor of a speculative theory, nor did his amazing mastery of the concrete philological material conceal from him the theoretical corollaries 11 The dedication to Van Wijk in the broadly conceived series Janua linguarum sealed the union of Slavistics and general linguistics that was so characteris tic for Mouton’s publishing. Before Mouton, no Western publisher seems ever to have published books in these fields on so large a scale. Noam Chomsky’s book Syntactic structures would become a bestseller and be profitable for both Mouton and Janua linguarum, the series in which the book appeared in 1957. In his letter to Van Schooneveld dated August 5, 1956, Chomsky apologizes for the delay in sending his manuscript. It seems that Van Schooneveld had seen the manuscript before: ‘You made a few notes of your own on the first page of the manuscript. I have since rewritten this page [...].’ 112 The rest of the letter concerns typographical matters. Van Schooneveld had received the manuscript in question through Morris Halle. De Ridder’s letter to Van Schooneveld, dated July 5, 1956, mentions Chomsky for the first time, but also the success of some formerly published volumes in the series: Zeer blij ben ik met Uw bericht over de nieuwe deeltjes voor de Janua Linguarum; die van Chomsky en van Halle en Chomsky. Het succes van de eerste twee deeltjes (Jakobson-Halle [=Fundamentals of language, 1955]: 350 exx. verkocht; van Wijk [=Les langues slaves: de l’unité d la pluralité, 1955]: 170 exx. verkocht; beide in goed 3 maanden!) maakt het mogehjk, in deze reeks zonder meer nieuwe titels uit te geven, mits niet omvangrijker dan ’n 120 pagina’s. 13 [I am very happy with your message about the new volumes for the Janua Linguarum; the one from Chomsky and the one from Halle and Chomsky. The success of the first two volumes (Jakobson-Halle [=Fundamentals of language, 1955]: 350 copies sold; van Wijk [=Les langues slaves: de l’unité a la pluralité, 1955]: 170 copies sold; both in a mere 3 months!) makes it possible to publish new titles in this series: the only limitation is that they not exceed about 120 pages.] Apparently, Chomsky’s employer, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, had proposed to buy copies of the book, because on July 30,1956