PS on hiring in Slavic-linguistics

[David J Birnbaum]

No, we should not all be trained in linguistics departments and no, we
should not all do generative syntax. Slavic linguistics is two things: a
science and a profession, and the preceding attitudes address only the
latter.

As a science, there is no reason that Slavic linguistics should not have
developed as a branch of general linguistics, except that this has not
historically been the case, and one cannot merge the two now without
deforming or impoverishing one or the other or both. Neither discipline is
superior or inferior, but they have traditionally had different emphases
and different training, and they have not so much arrived at different
answers as they have asked different questions. Those who associate
themselves primarily with one of these disciplines should certainly keep
up on the other, but neither is ready to absorb the other, and neither
should disappear.

The situation with Slavic linguistics as a profession is another matter.
If you need a job, your best bet may be to adapt to the market place. But
let's not be deluded into thinking that this is ultimately good for the
scientific study of the Slavic languages; human knowledge is not advanced
by limiting our perspectives. And the pendulum will surely swing, and go
on swinging, although how far and how fast is less certain.

-David
==================================================
Professor David J. Birnbaum      djbpitt+ at pitt.edu
The Royal York Apartments, #802  http://www.pitt.edu/~djbpitt/
3955 Bigelow Boulevard           voice: 1-412-624-5712
Pittsburgh, PA  15213  USA       fax:   1-412-624-9714