[Lingtyp] languages of scholarship
Jorge Rosés Labrada
jrosesla at ualberta.ca
Fri Jun 26 15:24:12 UTC 2020
Thank you everyone for a lively discussion of something that I personally
think is really important for us as a field to think about. I write here
mostly based on my own experience as a native Spanish speaker operating
primarily in an English world (I did my schooling in Canada and now live
and work here) but whose fieldwork is in Latin American countries.
Most of my scholar output (thesis, articles, book chapters, etc.) has been
in English and I arguably feel more comfortable writing in English than in
Spanish now because that's the language of most of the linguistics
literature I've read and of terminology. However, I was in a French
(medium) PhD program and I wrote class papers in French and read papers in
French. I also published in Spanish during my PhD in a journal in the
country where I was doing my research and have presented in Spanish at the
local university to make my research known locally but also to build
capacity in linguistics in the country.
I'll give you one concrete example of the issues caused by the hegemony of
English here and then share some suggestions of how we could perhaps
address some of the issues.
I'm working with a colleague in Latin America who doesn't read or speak
English (older, educated at a different time, etc.). In trying to publish
an article, my colleague has had to use Google Translate to engage with the
relevant typological literature and to engage with one reviewer's comments
which were in English. As you can imagine, Google Translate doesn't do the
best job at conveying nuance and some things come out mangled (*gloss* came
out as *brillo*!!). This has led to numerous hours spent on trying to
understand the literature and in trying to engage with it as well as hours
and hours trying to understand a review. You may ask, "why bother?" Well,
my colleague's institution wants publications in "important" journals...
As I see it, we have a responsibility to try to address these issues and
here are a few possible avenues:
1. *engage with the literature written in languages other than English*
(not only European languages but whatever the languages of the area where
we work are) *for reasons of scientific rigor*—why would you neglect
most of the literature in an area because you don't speak the language it
was written in? If you limit yourself to what is written in English, your
research won't be able to engage with foundational ideas or literature
(e.g. much of the initial literature for the part of the Amazon I work in
was written in German by German explorers; I did a bit of German in
university but not nearly enough to be able to read the originals so I've
paid for translations of particular articles, I have asked friends for help
translating small sections of articles, and I've used Google Translate to
understand relevant passages in certain pieces).
2. *promote work written in languages other than English*——If you're
bilingual/multilingual and work in a specific area of the world and you are
engaging the literature written by local linguists, I think we should take
steps to cite and promote that work in our own work. This sometimes
entails having to translate examples or quotes for use in our publications
but this increases the citations and visibility of our colleagues.
3. *create opportunities for everyone to be able to present/publish in
their native language if they so wish*. The international Journal of
American Linguistics publishes articles in English and Spanish; the Society
for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas (SSILA) accepts
papers in Spanish, English and Portuguese (and last January we had a
fantastic talk in Ch'ol [Mayan] by Morelia Vázquez Martínez and Carol-Rose
Little). These are examples of how to increase equity and accessibility for
our Latin American colleagues. There are ways to make these things
accessible to everyone (for presentations, use slides in one language and
present in another or add subtitles).
4. *avoid fetishizing standardized English in reviewing*—if one is
reviewing something and notices issues of grammar/style that needs
correcting, I personally prefer to suggest that the paper should be looked
at by a copy-editor working for the journaal rather than suggesting that
the authors have a native speaker of standardized English look it over.
This last type of suggestion is still way too common—and sometimes it is
even made for people with English as an L1.
5. *allow for glosses in the language of wider communication for the
region where you work alongside English*—yes, that means your glosses
will have an extra line but you're increasing the accessibility of the
examples to linguists working in that area as well as to bilingual speakers
from that area who are not speakers of English.
6. *provide summaries of articles in multiple languages*—most Latin
American journals that publish linguistic (and other) work, require an
abstract in English so English speakers can decide quickly whether they
should try to read the article. Why not promote the use of multiple
abstracts in English publications so our colleagues who don't speak English
or are not as confident with it can decide whether it is worth engaging
with the article?
I'm sure there are many other ideas that we could pursue but I hope that
we, as a field, can find concrete ways in promoting other languages in
publication. If we're letting English push out other "majority" languages,
what is the fate of minoritized languages? (this is a whole other issue but
the two are not unrelated and I'm glad that there's been progress in recent
times in this respect [as Peter pointed out, there's a number of theses in
minority languages that have started to appear in recent years]).
All the best,
Jorge
-------------
Jorge Emilio Rosés Labrada
Assistant Professor, Indigenous Language Sustainability
4-22 Assiniboia Hall
Department of Linguistics, University of Alberta
Tel: (+1) 780-492-5698
Email: jrosesla at ualberta.ca
*The University of Alberta acknowledges that we are located on Treaty 6
territory, **and respects the history, languages, and cultures of the First
Nations, Métis, Inuit, *
*and all First Peoples of Canada, whose presence continues to enrich our
institution.*
On Fri, Jun 26, 2020 at 8:01 AM Hiroto Uchihara <uchihara at buffalo.edu>
wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> In my case my native language (Japanese) and the medium language (Spanish)
> spoken in the region where the languages I study are different from
> English, and I've had a dilemma.
>
> I feel the most comfortable writing in Japanese, but if I write something
> on Cherokee, Zapotec, Mixtec or Tlapanec in Japanese, some may get upset
> for the reasons that have been raised already, or because the community
> members would not be able to access these papers. Thus I mostly write in
> English but I have often been criticized for my grammar by native speakers
> of English, which has been quite discouraging (this has happened even after
> having them proofread). Some scholars in Japan do not write in English for
> this reason. If the accessibility for the community members is the
> priority, probably I should be writing more in Spanish on Zapotec, Mixtec
> or Tlapanec.
>
> Best,
> Hiroto
>
> 2020年6月26日(金) 7:36 Johann-Mattis List <mattis.list at lingpy.org>:
>
>> I know that there is not much to gain scientifically for me in writing a
>> German article nowadays. But as a scientist, one is also obliged to
>> explain the results of one's research to a broader public, which is why
>> I publish regular blog posts in German. Furthermore, I profited a lot
>> from introductory text books and many other German articles on
>> linguistics which I read when reading English was still difficult for
>> me. I think even if we don't use non-English languages for high-end
>> studies in many scientific fields, one can acknowledge the importance of
>> translating work into many languages, or having original work on science
>> written by the scientists in their native tongues, in order to help
>> specifically the younger generations in their education.
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> Mattis
>>
>> On 6/26/20 2:24 PM, Peter Austin wrote:
>> > Piraha may be a stretch, but recently there have been PhD dissertations
>> > written and defended in Maori, Hawaiian and Inari Sami, among others.
>> > The issue at hand is supporting our colleagues to be able to publish (in
>> > books and journals) scholarship in these and other languages, it
>> appears.
>> >
>> > Peter
>> >
>> >
>> > On Fri, 26 Jun 2020 at 13:20, <joo at shh.mpg.de <mailto:joo at shh.mpg.de>>
>> > wrote:
>> >
>> > There’s nothing wrong with writing in English or other popular
>> > languages to reach a broader audience. However I think that an
>> > author should have the full choice to write in whatever language
>> > they want. If they choose to write their thesis in Piraha, then so
>> > be it, it is their thesis and their choice.
>> >
>> > Regards,
>> > Ian
>> > On 26. Jun 2020, 21:09 +0900, Aleksandrs Berdicevskis
>> > <alexberd at gmail.com <mailto:alexberd at gmail.com>>, wrote:
>> >>
>> >> There are hundreds of excellent research papers in linguistics
>> >> and related fields published annually in languages like
>> >> Chinese, Japanese and Arabic, much of which never pierces the
>> >> consciousness of English-only researchers because of attitudes
>> >> like having language hierarchies composed entirely of
>> >> European languages. Sheesh.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> But is it really because of attitudes? Or rather because very few
>> >> people are able to master dozens of languages to the level where
>> >> they can fluently read scholarly work (and keep track of
>> >> everything published)? And dozens is actually an understatement,
>> >> if we truly abandon the idea of having the lingua franca of
>> >> science, it should rather be thousands. It would be great to live
>> >> in a world like that, but that's hardly possible (excellent work
>> >> will inevitably remain invisible), and I think the drawbacks of
>> >> the compartmentalization of science outweigh the benefits of
>> >> linguistic diversity and multicentric perspectives in this case.
>> >>
>> >> Ulrich Ammon put forward a "somewhat utopian" idea of
>> >> "International English" -- a set of varieties of English where not
>> >> only Anglophone countries define the norms. I think that's very
>> >> close to what Martin and Ilja are proposing, and that something
>> >> like that is actually the best practically possible solution.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> On Fri, 26 Jun 2020 at 10:58, Ilja Seržant
>> >> <ilja.serzants at uni-leipzig.de
>> >> <mailto:ilja.serzants at uni-leipzig.de>> wrote:
>> >>
>> >> Dear all,
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> if I may add another perspective to this. I think passive
>> >> knowledge of other languages is, of course, important and
>> >> if a paper does not cite an important paper on the topic
>> >> written in a language other than English that is, of
>> >> course, a good reason for sending the paper back for
>> revision.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> However, a very different topic is publishing new papers
>> >> in languages other than English. I personally have strong
>> >> reservations here. Linguistics is such a complicated
>> >> matter and it is often so difficult to exactly understand
>> >> others. I think one should not make the problem of mutual
>> >> understanding even larger by publishing in languages other
>> >> than English (unless there is absolutely no escape). Even
>> >> more, perhaps, research English itself should also be
>> >> different from the native English in that one should try
>> >> to avoid dialectal, non-transparent idiomatic expressions,
>> >> write in short sentences, etc.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> If you publish in languages other than English then you
>> >> need a sort of hierarchy of which languages are considered
>> >> publishable (German, French, Russian ?, Latvian ??) and
>> >> which are not. I think this issue is difficult to resolve
>> >> in a fair way.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> Best,
>> >>
>> >> Ilja
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> Am 26.06.2020 um 11:39 schrieb Nigel Vincent:
>> >>> I am pleased that when Frans Plank and I edited a special
>> >>> issue of 'Transactions of the Philological Society' on
>> >>> suppletion last year -
>> >>> https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/1467968x/2019/117/3 -
>> >>> we were able to persuade the publishers to allow one of
>> >>> the articles to be published in French.
>> >>> <https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/1467968x/2019/117/3>
>> >>>
>> >>> The Diachrony of Suppletion: Transactions of the
>> >>> Philological Society: Vol 117, No 3 - Wiley Online
>> >>> Library
>> >>> <https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/1467968x/2019/117/3>
>> >>> If the address matches an existing account you will
>> >>> receive an email with instructions to retrieve your
>> username
>> >>> onlinelibrary.wiley.com <http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>> Professor Nigel Vincent, FBA MAE
>> >>> Professor Emeritus of General & Romance Linguistics
>> >>> The University of Manchester
>> >>>
>> >>> Linguistics & English Language
>> >>> School of Arts, Languages and Cultures
>> >>> The University of Manchester
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/researchers/nigel-vincent(f973a991-8ece-453e-abc5-3ca198c869dc).html
>> >>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> >>> *From:* Hartmut Haberland <hartmut at ruc.dk>
>> >>> <mailto:hartmut at ruc.dk>
>> >>> *Sent:* Friday, June 26, 2020 11:22 AM
>> >>> *To:* Nigel Vincent <nigel.vincent at manchester.ac.uk>
>> >>> <mailto:nigel.vincent at manchester.ac.uk>; Wiemer, Bjoern
>> >>> <wiemerb at uni-mainz.de> <mailto:wiemerb at uni-mainz.de>;
>> >>> Gilles Authier <gilles.authier at gmail.com>
>> >>> <mailto:gilles.authier at gmail.com>
>> >>> *Cc:* lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
>> >>> <mailto:lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
>> >>> <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
>> >>> <mailto:lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
>> >>> *Subject:* SV: [Lingtyp] languages of scholarship
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>> Et si l'article porte sur le grec moderne, il doit
>> >>> souvent se référer à la tradition grammaticale grecque
>> >>> (Tzartzanos) ou française (Roussel, Mirambel).
>> >>> Restricting oneself to discourses in /one/ language is
>> >>> myopic. Most linguists really need to read more than just
>> >>> two or three languages to keep up with the relevant
>> >>> literature, but how many do?
>> >>>
>> >>> (Robert E. Wall said in the famous McCawley Festschrift,
>> >>> “More people can make out what it is about in French than
>> >>> actually read it”.)
>> >>>
>> >>> To take a concrete example: /Acta Linguistica Hafniensia/
>> >>> was founded in 1939 and its first issue contained papers
>> >>> in German, French and English. Today, it still calls
>> >>> itself an ‘international journal’, but now practically
>> >>> all papers are in English, with very few exceptions.
>> >>> However, if you take a random issue (51(1), May 2019),
>> >>> apart from one paper specifically dealing with English,
>> >>> there are references to literature in German, French,
>> >>> Greek, Norwegian, and Swedish. So linguists are at least
>> >>> not passively monolingual.
>> >>>
>> >>> Hartmut Haberland
>> >>>
>> >>> *Fra:* Lingtyp
>> >>> <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org>
>> >>> <mailto:lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> *På
>> >>> vegne af* Nigel Vincent
>> >>> *Sendt:* 26. juni 2020 10:04
>> >>> *Til:* Wiemer, Bjoern <wiemerb at uni-mainz.de>
>> >>> <mailto:wiemerb at uni-mainz.de>; Gilles Authier
>> >>> <gilles.authier at gmail.com> <mailto:
>> gilles.authier at gmail.com>
>> >>> *Cc:* lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
>> >>> <mailto:lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
>> >>> *Emne:* Re: [Lingtyp] languages of scholarship
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>> Et si l'article est sur une langue romane mais les
>> >>> références jugées indispensables sont écrites en allemand
>> >>> ou en danois … ?
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>> Professor Nigel Vincent, FBA MAE
>> >>> Professor Emeritus of General & Romance Linguistics
>> >>> The University of Manchester
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>> Linguistics & English Language
>> >>> School of Arts, Languages and Cultures
>> >>>
>> >>> The University of Manchester
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/researchers/nigel-vincent(f973a991-8ece-453e-abc5-3ca198c869dc).html
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> >>>
>> >>> *From:* Wiemer, Bjoern <wiemerb at uni-mainz.de
>> >>> <mailto:wiemerb at uni-mainz.de>>
>> >>> *Sent:* Friday, June 26, 2020 9:44 AM
>> >>> *To:* Gilles Authier <gilles.authier at gmail.com
>> >>> <mailto:gilles.authier at gmail.com>>; Nigel Vincent
>> >>> <nigel.vincent at manchester.ac.uk
>> >>> <mailto:nigel.vincent at manchester.ac.uk>>
>> >>> *Cc:* lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
>> >>> <mailto:lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
>> >>> <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
>> >>> <mailto:lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>>
>> >>> *Subject:* AW: [Lingtyp] languages of scholarship
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>> Je pense que oui… Actually, the same applies to articles
>> >>> on (a language from) other language groups (e.g., Slavic)
>> >>> or subgroups (e.g., Scandinavian)…
>> >>>
>> >>> BW
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>> *Von:* Lingtyp
>> >>> [mailto:lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org] *Im
>> >>> Auftrag von* Gilles Authier
>> >>> *Gesendet:* Freitag, 26. Juni 2020 09:35
>> >>> *An:* Nigel Vincent <nigel.vincent at manchester.ac.uk
>> >>> <mailto:nigel.vincent at manchester.ac.uk>>
>> >>> *Cc:* lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
>> >>> <mailto:lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
>> >>> *Betreff:* Re: [Lingtyp] languages of scholarship
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>> Si l'article est sur une langue romane et que les
>> >>> références jugées indispensables sont écrites dans une
>> >>> langue romane, il me semblerait devoir être rejeté, oui.
>> >>>
>> >>> GA
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>> On Fri, Jun 26, 2020 at 7:52 AM Nigel Vincent
>> >>> <nigel.vincent at manchester.ac.uk
>> >>> <mailto:nigel.vincent at manchester.ac.uk>> wrote:
>> >>>
>> >>> A related question to Ian's that I have sometimes
>> >>> thought about concerns the languages a researcher
>> >>> should be able to read in order to access relevant
>> >>> scholarship. Should, for example, a paper be rejected
>> >>> or revisions asked for if someone writing in English
>> >>> on a general linguistic topic has not cited relevant
>> >>> work written in a language other than English?
>> >>>
>> >>> Nigel
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>> Professor Nigel Vincent, FBA MAE
>> >>> Professor Emeritus of General & Romance Linguistics
>> >>> The University of Manchester
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>> Linguistics & English Language
>> >>> School of Arts, Languages and Cultures
>> >>>
>> >>> The University of Manchester
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/researchers/nigel-vincent(f973a991-8ece-453e-abc5-3ca198c869dc).html
>> >>>
>> >>> _______________________________________________
>> >>> Lingtyp mailing list
>> >>> Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
>> >>> <mailto:Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
>> >>>
>> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>> _______________________________________________
>> >>> Lingtyp mailing list
>> >>> Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org <mailto:
>> Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
>> >>> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp
>> >> --
>> >> Ilja A. Seržant, postdoc
>> >> Project "Grammatical Universals"
>> >> Universität Leipzig (IPF 141199)
>> >> Nikolaistraße 6-10
>> >> 04109 Leipzig
>> >>
>> >> URL: http://home.uni-leipzig.de/serzant/
>> >>
>> >> Tel.: + 49 341 97 37713
>> >> Room 5.22
>> >>
>> >> _______________________________________________
>> >> Lingtyp mailing list
>> >> Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
>> >> <mailto:Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
>> >> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> --
>> >> Prof Peter K. Austin
>> >> Emeritus Professor in Field Linguistics, SOAS
>> >> Visiting Researcher, Oxford University
>> >> Foundation Editor, EL Publishing
>> >> Honorary Treasurer, Philological Society
>> >>
>> >> Department of Linguistics, SOAS
>> >> Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square
>> >> London WC1H 0XG
>> >> United Kingdom
>> >> _______________________________________________
>> >> Lingtyp mailing list
>> >> Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
>> >> <mailto:Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
>> >> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp
>> >>
>> >> _______________________________________________
>> >> Lingtyp mailing list
>> >> Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
>> >> <mailto:Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
>> >> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > Lingtyp mailing list
>> > Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
>> > <mailto:Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
>> > http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > Prof Peter K. Austin
>> > Emeritus Professor in Field Linguistics, SOAS
>> > Visiting Researcher, Oxford University
>> > Foundation Editor, EL Publishing
>> > Honorary Treasurer, Philological Society
>> >
>> > Department of Linguistics, SOAS
>> > Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square
>> > London WC1H 0XG
>> > United Kingdom
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > Lingtyp mailing list
>> > Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
>> > http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp
>> >
>> _______________________________________________
>> Lingtyp mailing list
>> Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
>> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp
>>
> _______________________________________________
> Lingtyp mailing list
> Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lingtyp/attachments/20200626/e1eb00b1/attachment.htm>
More information about the Lingtyp
mailing list