Squib (linguistics)

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In linguistics, a squib is a short article that is intended to ignite thinking and discourse by others on topics of theoretical importance - e.g., see MIT Press's journal, Linguistic Inquiry [1]. Often, squibs outline anomalous data but do not suggest a solution. A squib may also develop a minor theoretical argument.

A particularly interesting variety of squibs are the so called snippets, which are "the ideal footnote: a side remark that taken on its own is not worth lengthy development but that needs to be said".[2] The online journal Snippets is dedicated to this type of squib.[3]