Government language study released (fwd)

[Susan Penfield]

Can't resist this thread.

Tribal politics is always a process, often a hassle and occasionally an
obstacle ---Does that strike a middle ground here?  I'd say both 'insiders'
and 'outsiders' would  agree with that---has nothing to do with
'retrofitting'. An understanding of tribal politics is essential since it
defines the space and parameters for negotiations. But, blanket
characterizations of tribal politics either way, while tempting, are not
fair.
 Probably goes without saying, but let's not forget that each community is
different, as is each person's and program's involvement with tribal
politics. I'll agree with Sean in that providing practical, very usable,
results mitigates much of the tension in most situations. Nevertheless,
sincere commitment and practical results are only usually, not always, a
winning combination.
In any case,  tribal politics are always to be considered and respected.

Patience everyone! Isn't that the great lesson of working with community
level programs or politics?

Susan
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sean M. Burke" <sburke at CPAN.ORG>
To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, December 18, 2004 2:53 AM
Subject: Re: Government language study released (fwd)


> At 10:53 PM 2004-12-17, Rolland Nadjiwon wrote:
>>What if you are working with a language that has no(your last paragraph)
>>pronouns, genderization, binarism or linearity(time/history)...do you
>>invent them?
>
> What do /you/ think?  I was talking about (largely uninflected) nouns and
> (highly inflected) verbs in Apachean, a distinction that I think is about
> as uncontroversial as they get -- if that bothers you, explain why.
> For chrissake, I wasn't insisting that Your Favorite Language has an
> ablative absolutive!
>
>>Further, 'tribal politics' is not an obstacle it is a process, an
>>'obstacle' perhaps to externalized retrofitting retrofitters.
>
> Oh my yes, when the head of the culture program /still/ won't talk to the
> head of the language program because her sister Orlene asked his
> teasing-cousin Bulerd to the prom in 1952 instead of asking /him/, I'll be
> sure to bear in mind your heartfelt advice that this is all just a joyous
> process, and that to view it otherwise is to be a retrofitty retrofitso.
>
> Who needs a hug?!?
>
> --
> Sean M. Burke    http://search.cpan.org/~sburke/