NYT and SLA on Whorf

[Kathryn Woolard]

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From my recent experiences with unpublished letters to the NYT, it's my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