This volume contains 37 papers selected from the proceedings of the XXXIst Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea held at the University of St Andrews, Scotland in 1998. The general theme of the conference was 'langue and parole in synchronic and diachronic perspective', a theme chosen for its enduring importance and one which allowed speakers to reflect on the theoretical notions of langue and parole, to use them in an actual analysis or to present material beyond these core ideas. The breadth of papers published here and the eminence of many of the contributors reflects the fruitfulness of this approach.