(fwd) Re: back and forth

[Spike Gildea]

>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>Date: Fri, 10 Jan 1997 23:14:34 +0200 (IST)
>From: ariel mira <mariel at ccsg.tau.ac.il>
>To: Tom Givon <TGIVON at OREGON.UOREGON.EDU>
>Cc: Multiple recipients of list FUNKNET <FUNKNET at LISTSERV.RICE.EDU>
>Subject: Re: back and forth
>
>Dear Tom,
>
>I very much agree with your position and Wally Chafe's. Chomskyans are
>keen on knocking down functionalism by attacking some imaginary strawman,
>such as: If functionally motivated, then 100% motivated. And I think
>they've done a very good job among us functionalists, so that we've come
>to believe that there are some among us (never me, of course) who actually
>believe that 100% of language is transparently and synchronically
>motivated. Yes, there was Garcia in the 1970's. But 20 years have passed
>since then, and in my attempt to find this extreme position in writing, I
>have not come up with anything. All I can find is people like you and Paul
>Hopper saying they are NOT adopting the extreme position.
>
>So, if there is ANYBODY holding that extreme position, please speak
>up/give references. If there's nobody holding that position, could we stop
>arguing against it?
>
>Shabbat Shalom,
>
>Mira