Re: theory (was: Re: Greenberg's Word Order Universals)
| From: | SMITH,MARCUS ANTHONY <smithma@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Friday, September 15, 2000, 23:40 |
|---|
On Fri, 15 Sep 2000, J Matthew Pearson wrote:
> Maybe I'm naive, but I don't recall ever hearing one of my fellow theoristical linguists
> characterize fieldworkers this way--except in knee-jerk defense against the accusation on
> the part of said fieldworkers that linguistic theory is a load of crap.
Note Dixon's comments on the matter in "Rise and Fall of Languages". He
seems rather irritated that theorists consider their work more difficult
than his field work, and his rebutle that he finds fieldwork more
difficult than theorizing. Seems to me an indication that he has heard
negative comments from theorists, but he never says so directly.
Marcus