linguistic questions

[Robert Lawless]

I find Faller's statement extraordinary. I'm admittedly only partially
trained in linguistics, but does Faller mean to say that we should not try
to teach sociolinguistics to monolinguals? I guess most linguists should
now resign their teaching positions. And somehow I had the notion that
almost all the data that linguists work with comes from monolinguals. I
didn't realize that linguists speak only to multilinguals. Ron and Richard,
are you ever going to speak to me again? I have another confession. I have
thoroughly forgotten the five or six other languages I used to know, a
couple (maybe) even with "deep knowledge." Robert.

At 05:35 PM 4/17/2003 -0400, Jack Sidnell wrote:

>Further to the wave of comments on "linguistic questions" - I suspect that
>the person who wrote,
>
>"No linguist worth his or her snot can think comparatively without deep
>knowledge of more than one linguistic system."
>
>speaks more than one language and yet has not told us anything
>interesting. Thank goodness she said it "respectfully"!
>
>Jack
>
>
>
>
>At 2:51 PM -0400 4/17/03, hmfaller at umich.edu wrote:
>>I feel compelled to take issue with this statement.
>>
>>No linguist worth his or her snot can think comparatively without deep
>>knowledge of more than one linguistic system. Have you ever tried to
>>teach anything about sociolinguistics to monolinguals? Do monolinguals
>>ever tell us anything of interest about language?
>>
>>Respectfully,
>>
>>Helen Faller
>>
>>--On Thursday, April 17, 2003 1:02 PM -0500 Robert Lawless
>><robert.lawless at wichita.edu> wrote:
>>
>>>Yes, Richard. Thanks for pointing this out. I was explaining the
>>>difference between a polyglot and a linguist in class a few days ago, and
>>>I said that most of the outstanding American linguists, at least of a few
>>>decades ago, were monolingual. Some smartass student asked, "Who were
>>>they?" Being only a superficial anthropological linguist, I couldn't
>>>answer the question with any authority. Was I, in fact, correct, and,
>>>indeed, who are they? Robert.
>>>
>>>At 10:26 AM 4/17/2003 -0700, you wrote:
>>>>  And in an amusing irony, linguists often don't develop conversational
>>>>  command of a particular language even when they *have* developed a
>>>>  sophisticated linguistic understanding of said language.
>
>
>--
>Jack Sidnell
>Assistant Professor, Anthropology
>University of Toronto
>100 St. George St.
>Toronto Ontario M5S 3G3
>CANADA
>
>phone: 905-828-3776
>fax: 416-978-3217
>
>email: jack.sidnell at utoronto.ca
>http://briefcase.yahoo.com/sidnell_er
>
>
>
>
>
>---
>Incoming mail is certified Virus Free.
>Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
>Version: 6.0.471 / Virus Database: 269 - Release Date: 4/10/2003
-------------- next part --------------

---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.471 / Virus Database: 269 - Release Date: 4/10/2003