Re: R: Moraic codas [was Re: 'Yemls Morphology]

> And wrote:
>
> > > But you surely know much, much more than I do on this matter...
> >
> > Not really. The nice thing about phonology is that you don't need to know
> > a lot in order to do it.
>
> <retranslating from Italian into English>
>
> "Phonology has, within social sciences, the same innovator task nuclear
> physics has had, for instance, within numeric sciences"
> Lévi-Strauss
>
> It's true we don't need the most modern labs in order to study phonologic
> structures of languages, while phisicians use the most modern technologies
> to study muons etc. Our mouth's often enough, true, but phonology is not
> _so_ simple :-)
>
> Luca
Although I was being flippant, I really do think it is easy compared to
pretty much any other area of linguistics, tho the reasons for it being
easier vary according to which other area it is being compared to.
(Obviously not all linguisticians, given their various intellectual
strengths and weaknesses, would agree with me, of course.)

The Levi-Strauss quote is apt and admirably cited, the sort of pertinent
erudition that experience has taught me to expect from Italians. But
its claim was a big mistake, for unfortunately nothing outside phonology is
as simple as phonology and believing otherwise is a seductive fantasy
fit for nothing but being taught to hapless undergraduates.

--And.

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