[Lingtyp] languages of scholarship

[Jorge Rosés Labrada]

Martin invites us to think "about the way academia is organized" and "[w]hy
is it the case that people who write in small languages have fewer chances
to get good jobs?" while pointing out that "linguists will hardly get good
jobs unless they write in a big language."

I agree that we do need to be thinking about the way academia operates and
especially the changes and attacks it is currently undergoing
(casualization of labour, budget cuts, increased fees for the arts and
humanities, predatory publishing companies, and many more) but I want to
point out that we all (and especially the senior academics on this list)
have some agency in hiring, funding, and publication decisions so when we
serve on hiring or funding committees or serve as reviewers for a funding
agency or a tenure case or sit on editorial boards, we should all be
thinking about what work gets accepted/rewarded/promoted and what barriers
prevent wider inclusion/representation and, importantly, how we can
dismantle those barriers.

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 12:59 PM Martin Haspelmath <haspelmath at shh.mpg.de>
wrote:

> It seems that there are two groups of people: the "defeatists" who
> realize that English/Globish has won, and the "romantics" who cherish
> linguistic diversity also when it comes to linguistics writings.
>
> I belong to the defeatists, also because I know that I owe my own career
> to my early switch to English (my 1993 dissertation on indefinite
> pronouns was the first linguistics dissertation written in English in
> Germany, and it helped me get a good job; nowadays few people write in
> German about general linguistics).
>
> So, sad as it is: Just as speakers of Sáliba or Japhug do not get good
> jobs without knowing another big language as well, linguists will hardly
> get good jobs unless they write in a big language. It's wonderful to
> hear about linguistics dissertations written in Quechua
> (
> http://www.openculture.com/2019/10/peruvian-scholar-writes-defends-the-first-thesis-written-in-quechua.html),
>
> but can this be much more than a symbolic act?
>
> Instead of talking about the languages we write in, we should perhaps
> talk about the way academia is organized. Why is it the case that people
> who write in small languages have fewer chances to get good jobs? What
> is it that discourages ambitious Latvian linguists from writing in Latvian?
>
> Why do I read in reviews that "X has published in excellent journals",
> and why is it that journals highlight their "impact factors"? Since this
> is a typology list: Why doesn't ALT object to De Gruyter's listing LT's
> impact factor
> (https://www.degruyter.com/view/journals/lity/lity-overview.xml), even
> though impact factors are widely thought to be damaging to science?
>
> So if we are serious about our wish to support small languages, even in
> linguistics writings, we should perhaps think about moving away from De
> Gruyter and setting up a linguistics journal that is open to many other
> languages. Maybe with our prestige as ALT, we can make a real
> difference. (It seems unlikely, but it may be worth trying.)
>
> Best,
> Martin
>
> --
> Martin Haspelmath (haspelmath at shh.mpg.de)
> Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
> Kahlaische Strasse 10
> D-07745 Jena
> &
> Leipzig University
> Institut fuer Anglistik
> IPF 141199
> D-04081 Leipzig
>
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>
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