"Being bilingual may delay Alzheimer's and boost brain power..."

[Angus B. Grieve-Smith]

On Thu, February 24, 2011 1:03 pm, alex gross wrote:

> One reason I am highly impressed with Lise's study (and also why I was
> happy to learn that Anne Marie is a speech therapist) is that I have
become > ever more certain over the years that the real center of
language study lies
> not in grammar at all but in language physiology and the sheer
physicality of
> language.

Shouldn't it be up to individual scholars what the real center of their
studies is?  I didn't like it when Chomsky told me that grammar was the
real center, and I don't like it when you tell me that physiology is the
real center.  I don't see any evidence that there's an objective center to
language study independent of our perspectives.

To paraphrase Bertrand Russell (and include one of Chomsky's favorite
insults): my subfield is the real center of language, yours is peripheral,
and hers is uninteresting.

For me personally, I'm not even sure that language study has a center;
maybe it's polycentric.

-- 
			-Angus B. Grieve-Smith
                        Saint John's University
			grvsmth at panix.com