NYT and SLA on Whorf

[Kerim Friedman]

One of the central underlying themes of Kit's blog post is the distinction
between the anthropological and the psychological approaches to the study of
language. I think that this would be a great topic to expand upon on our
blog, as it is a distinction not well understood by non-specialists. I
encourage anyone interested in writing short, readable blog posts on the
topic to contact Leila.

Cheers,

Kerim

On Thu, Sep 2, 2010 at 3:26 AM, Kathryn Woolard <kwoolard at ucsd.edu> wrote:

> I've had a couple of inquiries about whether I've written to the NYT, and
> the answer that I have not.
>
> From my recent experiences with unpublished letters to the NYT, it's my
> sense that in order to get a single letter published, there has to be a
> critical mass of letters on the same topic. I think it would be great if
> someone wants to organize a letter-writing campaign, one that accentuates
> the positive, I would think. If someone else can take the lead, I could add
> a letter, but others could also reference & link to the SLA website piece.
> Some NYT letters just appear online, and that would probably not be bad in
> this case.
>
> Leila is right about short and sweet (and here, I do mean sweet; for the
> NYT, I think we should accentuate ling. anthro's tremendous contribution to
> the foundations as well as vanguard of this topic, not whine too much about
> being slighted, though I do that in the blog.)
>
> I believe John Haviland is getting far more email on that piece from all
> over the place than he can possibly respond to, so this might be a very
> good
> time for the SLA/linganth network to try to activate a public comment.
>
> Best to all,
> Kit
>
>
> On 9/1/10 10:54 AM, "Leila Monaghan" <leila.monaghan at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > If anyone does write to the NYT, make it short and sweet. 150 word
> letters
> > are much more likely to published than longer ones although an op-ed
> piece
> > might also be possible and those are considerably longer.
> >
> > all best,
> >
> > Leila
> >
> >
> >
> > On Sep 1, 2010 11:36am, Elizabeth Anne Falconi <elifalco at umich.edu>
> wrote:
> >> Kit are you or anyone else planning to write a letter to the NYT
> Magazine
> >> summarizing what you posted on the SLA blog? I was thinking it would be
> >> useful to directly engage the claims Deutscher makes about Whorf and to
> >> highlight the plethora of scholarship on this topic from our discipline
> >> that he brushes over with such broad strokes.
> >
> >
> >
> >> Best,
> >
> >> Elizabeth Falconi
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >> Quoting Kathryn Woolard kwoolard at UCSD.EDU>:
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >> The recent New York Times magazine article on linguistic relativity is
> >
> >> generating internet comment this week. Mindful of Bill Leap's and
> others'
> >
> >> insightful comments on this listserv about doing our own PR work, I put
> >
> >> together a little bibliographic post for the SLA website as a resource.
> >> I've
> >
> >> also sent the links to the article and SLA posting to the AAA PR
> officer,
> >
> >> who has asked for information on members in the news.
> >
> >
> >
> >>
> http://www.linguisticanthropology.org/2010/09/01/linguistic-relativity-whorf
> >
> >> -linguistic-anthropology/
> >
> >
> >
> >> This piece is just a start; I'm sure many of you have material and
> >
> >> perspectives to add, which will be welcome.
> >
> >
> >
> >> All best wishes,
> >
> >> Kit
>
>
> Kathryn A. Woolard, Professor
> kwoolard at ucsd.edu
> Department of Anthropology, 0532                              Phone: (858)
> 534-4639
> UCSD
> Fax :  (858) 534-5946
> 9500 Gilman Drive
> La Jolla, CA 92093-0532
>



-- 


*P. Kerim Friedman 傅可恩 <http://kerim.oxus.net/>*
*
*

Assistant Professor
Department of Indigenous Cultures
College of Indigenous Studies
National DongHwa University, TAIWAN
助理教授國立東華大學民族文化學系