Re: OFF-TOPIC: Non linguistics books by Chomsky

From:    Jeff Jones <jeffsjones@...>
> This is really the last straw! You and Tom and Ray etc. don't get it, do
> you? Could all the idiots who keep trying to politicize this board,
> academic politics or any other kind, FUCK OFF !!!
>
> No Cross, No Crown, No Puke Green Star!
It is my understanding (and the Lord of Instrumentality, John,
can confirm or deny this), that this list has a more or less official
policy of tolerance towards all manner of debate about all manner of
subjects, even when they are wildly irrelevant to the discussion of
constructed languages. IME the only subject matter that has traditionally
been held off-limits is the politicking surrounding artificial languages
as frequently goes on in the Auxlang list, and AFAIK since that list
split off we have never had extended problems with this.

Also, I think it is worth pointing out that what John and I were
discussing (very politely, I thought) was the larger question of
what role Chomsky has had as a linguist and as an intellectual. I would
think this is quite relevant to discussion of the linguistics of
conlanging, because so many of the claims about what a natural human
language is are couched precisely in Chomskyan terms (like pro-drop,
theta-roles, movement, null categories, etc.). If these theoretical
positions are being promoted for less than purely scientifically
motivated reasons, then we might want to have alternative analyses
and thus alternative structures in our own conlangs.  Perhaps I
missed some post, or failed to understand some claim, but I did not
see anything resembling ideological bigotry that would motivate
your comment.

 =========================================================================
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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