ineua & how-to-cite

[Galen Brokaw]

Richard,
Your second question is a very good one, and I would like to give you my
opinion. I'm sending this to the list because we all have an investment
in this issue, and I'd be interested to hear what others might have to
say on this matter.
First, I think that if you err on this issue, you should err on the side
of caution and professional courtesy.
How you deal with this may depend on the nature of the information that
you want to cite. But it is important to keep in mind that an email
discussion list like Nahuat-l is a very informal venue. In general, when
you draw from other people's ideas that are expressed in such a venue, I
think it is a good policy to be generous and positive. What I mean by
that is that you should not attack or criticize ideas that you may
disagree with. That is to say, that you should only use things that are
helpful to you in a positive way and ignore ideas or arguments with
which you may disagree. I'm not saying this because I don't like good
natured debate. Sometimes in published articles you see people develop a
critique in a kind of negative dialogue with someone else's work. Even
when you take this approach with published sources, you need to be very
careful, because in some cases I think that it merely masks the fact
that the critic doesn't have an argument of his or her own. And you also
run the risk of falling into a strawman argument. But sometimes the
issue is such that this approach is useful and perhaps even necessary.
Email discussions, however, are much more informal than published
articles. The whole point is to have a dialogue in which ideas can be
bounced around and discussed in an open way. So, at least for me, I
wouldn't necessarily want anybody to hold me to something that I wrote
on this list. I often put stuff out there in an explicitly hypothetical
way, because that kind of thing can be very productive in the kind of
dialogue that often goes on here. So, I think it would be kind of unfair
to write up and publish--whether that be an article, a Masters thesis,
or whatever--a critique of an argument or idea presented on an email
list unless the person who sent out the message consents.
For the same reason, even when you want to use a specific idea or
argument that appeared on the list with which you agree, I think it is
always a good policy to ask the person about it. This will help you
avoid misrepresentation. Let's say, for example, that you agree with
someone's argument or position on something discussed on the list, but
the person who originally articulated that argument no longer agrees
with it. In such a case, you should probably still give credit to the
person in a more general way that does not misrepresent that person's
current position on the matter. In such a case, a footnoted explanation
might be useful.
And I do think this kind of request should be made directly to the
person rather than publicly on the list.
Maybe this is more detail than you were looking for, but I think this
kind of thing is important, especially since I have probably said a lot
of really dumb things on this list :-). Good luck with your thesis.
Galen



rick dosan wrote:

> I was wondering if there is any difference between ineua and inehua
> (with h).  And if it's in Karttunen's Dictionary, where is it? because
> I didn´t find it.  Is its root eua? And what is the sense that
> connects its two meanings "dar un mal golpe" (miss a blow) and "estar
> poseído por el demonio" (Be possessed by the devil).
>
> I have a different kind of question, too.
> Some of the questions I ask are related to my masters thesis.  And I
> wanted to know what is the normal practice for citing (quoting-  " ")
> here on the list.  Can we freely cite what is said?  Should we ask
> permission each time we want to cite something?  If we want to ask
> permission, should we ask it publicly, or directly to the person who
> we want to cite?
>
> Thank you.
> Richard
>
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