Re: Learning to conlang to write better english!

Taliesin wrote:
> > That wasn't my point. Why doesn't more *linguists* use conlanging to
> > teach linguistics? Some even seem afraid of it!
>
> A good point.  There, of course, have been some who have--Matt
> Pearson, Tom Wier did a class at UT (right?), and Maria Polinsky
> here at UCSD was very receptive to my idea about creating a
> pidgin/creole in her pidgins and creoles class
I didn't, but there was one at UT a few years ago, and somewhat
more recently there was a class here at Chicago on linguistics
through Tolkien's languages, which another gradstudent here
taught.

But with respect to the larger point, I think there are a couple
reasons why linguists shy away from conlangs.  First, there's the
fact that linguists tend to think of themselves as social-scientists,
and as a result they tend to question the value of anything that's
"made-up", and not actually grounded in some putatively real
situation.  (Personally I agree, since most conlangs are
simply relexifications of the grammars of the creator's native
language.)  Secondly, as a follow-on to that, most linguists take
themselves far more seriously than they ought to.  One of my
professors who disliked this aspect of the field once put it
like this:  bridges will not fall, nor buildings collapse, if
linguistic theories turn out to be wrong.  This is not of course
to say that linguistics is unimportant, only that its importance
is more abstract and thus less worthy of vitriol.

Incidentally, it appears to be less the case outside linguistics
proper.  Yesterday at our end-of-year departmental barbecue, I was
speaking to John Goldsmith, and he mentioned that Stanley Fish,
the famous Miltonist and scholar of 17th-century English literature,
also taught a course on introductory linguistics through the medium
of constructed languages.  I think departments are realizing that
constructed languages are a real way to bring in students who would
otherwise not ever find any interest in the field, that it's a good
way to channel students into the theoretical study of natural languages.

 =========================================================================
Thomas Wier	       "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally,
Dept. of Linguistics    because our secret police don't get it right
University of Chicago   half the time." -- octogenarian Sheikh Zayed of
1010 E. 59th Street     Abu Dhabi, to a French reporter.
Chicago, IL 60637

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