Biographical note: Sylvain Auroux is Professor at the ENS Lettres et Sciences Humaines, University of Lyon (France).E.F.K. Koerner is Professor at the Centre for General Linguistics, Typology and Universals Research (ZAS), Berlin (Germany)Hans-J. Niederehe is Professor Emeritus for Romance Philology of the University of Trier (Germany).Kees Versteegh is Professor at the Institute of the Middle East of the University of Nijmegen (Nederlands)