Linguistics was started in 1963 by Mouton Publishers in The Hague, apparently on the initiative of Mouton's Peter de Ridder as well as linguist C.H. van Schooneveld.[1] In 1979, after Mouton had been bought by Walter de Gruyter, a new editorial board was established, consisting of Brian Butterworth, Bernard Comrie, Östen Dahl, Norbert Dittmar, Flip Droste, Jaap van Marle, and Jürgen Weissenborn. De facto, Brian Butterworth was editor-in-chief between 1979 and 1982.