LINGUIST List 5.1252

Mon 07 Nov 1994

Disc: Eskimo "snow"

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1. , 5.1239 Eskimo "snow": fun and fact (Reply)
2. "George Fowler h(, Snow and ICE!!

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All of a sudden Eskimo snow talk is in fashion again and references are
made to Pullam's "unveiling" of the great Eskimo vocabulary hoax. That
some linguists quote this article as serious scholarly refutation of the
so-called Whorf hypothesis (if I look at some of the e-mail I received) shows
that even 'professional' linguists are perhaps somewhat illiterate (anybody
there know about remedial classes for ageing linguists?).

Pullam's article is found in Part III of his book under the heading
"Unscientific behavior". My reading of the article is that his purpose was to
show that linguists (and other scientists) do not consult primary sources but
accept "facts" which are based on hear-say -- few linguists seem to check
their 'facts'.

And in his Prologue Pullam says: "Read the TOPIC...COMMENT columns
collected here as spoofs, whimsies, lampoons, parodies, fantasies, pieces
of innocent silliness or self-parodying mock rage, not as contributions to the
field of linguistics expressed in some arcane code." (p5).

It seems some linguists cannot distinguish between fun and fact.
But this is nothing new or strange. Feyerabend was labelled as an
'irrationalist' by some commentators of his work. And when he pondered
upon reactions to his "infamous" *Against method*, he says he came to
realise that academics are somewhat incompetent. But let Feyerabend
speak for himself:
"When I wrote these replies I thought that I was confronted with individual
incompetence: the learned gentlemen (and the one learned lady who
joined the dance) were not too bright and rather badly informed and so they
quite naturally made fools of themselves. Since then I have realized that
this is a rather superficial way of looking at things. For the mistakes I
noticed and criticized do not merely occur in this or that review, they are
fairly widespread. And their frequency is not merely an accident of history, it
shows a pattern. Speaking paradoxically we may say that incompetence,
having been standardized, has now become an essential part of
professional excellence. We have no longer incompetent professionals, we
have professionalized incompetence." (1978:183)

My conclusion about the present Eskimo snow conversations is that some
linguists cannot distinguish between fun and fact; and those who take
Pullam's tongue in the cheek comments seriously make a Feyerabendian
farce of the study of language.
Jacques Steyn
University of South Africa

On today's broadcast of Fresh Air (an NPR radio program on cultural matters,
featuring interviews and reviews of books, films, music, etc., done in
Philadelphia, I believe) there was a brief review of a book which mentioned
that in Greenland there are 50 words for "ice"! Looks like this particular
northern myth is starting to reproduce. Next we'll have 75 words for icicles,
then 100 verbs of motion for sled dogs, followed by 150 adjectives for degrees
of cold.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 George Fowler GFowlerIndiana.Edu [Email]
 Dept. of Slavic Languages (812) 855-2829 [office]
 Ballantine 502 (317) 726-1482 [home]
 Indiana University (812) 855-2624/-2608/-9906 [dept.]
 Bloomington, IN 47405 USA (812) 855-2107 [dept. fax]