Squib (linguistics)

A squib is a brief satirical or witty piece of writing or speech, like a lampoon, or a short, sometimes humorous piece in a newspaper or magazine, used as a filler. It can be intended to ignite thinking and discourse by others on topics of theoretical importance - e.g., see MIT Press's journal, Linguistic Inquiry [http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=4&tid=6] , but is often less substantial than this and just humorous (see Daily Squib( [http://www.dailysquib.co.uk] ).

In linguistics, squibs may outline anomalous data but 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". [http://www.ledonline.it/snippets/] The online journal Snippets is dedicated to this type of squib. [http://www.ledonline.it/snippets/]