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b-hebrew - Language prejudice (was: Re[8]: Qatal, 1 Kings 11:1)

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  • From: Peter_Kirk AT SIL.ORG
  • To: b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Language prejudice (was: Re[8]: Qatal, 1 Kings 11:1)
  • Date: Sat, 06 Feb 1999 23:07:43 -0500 (EST)


Dave Washburn wrote:

"However, I would argue that it is not enough simply to say "somebody
says it that way, so it must be well-formed." There
must be some guidelines of some kind for determining what is a
well-formed clause and what isn't, or we end up back with Humpty
Dumpty."

I consider it extremely offensive to speakers of minority languages
and/or "dialects" to suggest that what they speak is not a well-formed
language, apparently when its syntactic rules are different from those
of the "standardised" form of the language and/or don't fit a theory
nicely. If a community speaks in a particular way, it is the job of
linguists to describe their language and adjust their theories to
account for it, not to pass value judgments on it on the basis of how
well it fits their existing theories.

Do I have any support on this list for my view?

Peter Kirk




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