re: What good is linguistics?

[Sara Kimball <skimball@uts.cc.utexas.edu>]

Well, Beth,  I'm not sure there would be the same optimism from the
composition side about things like structural linguistics,
sentence-combining or generative rhetoric. I'd agree with what many people
said about the importance of sociolinguistics, and I think that has been
an enduring point of contact because so many of us find it helps explain
what our students are facing. 

It strikes me though, that
linguistics departments and the profession as epitomized by e.g. the
Linguistic Society of America and publications like _Language_
started turning inward in, say, the mid 1970's, maybe a little later or
not entirely in fields like sociolinguistics. I do know Bill Labov,
though, and I do remember once wanting to take him by the scruff of
the neck and drag him into my composition class at Rutgers Camden and 
point out some home truths about differences between theory and
practice.  

There have always, however,
been those of us who walk back and forth over the border freely, and
ESL/TESOL in particular is another enduring point of contact. People in
linguistics also tend to forget that linguistics departments came from
language
departments, including English departments, and there are more jobs for
linguists outside of linguistics departments than there are inside.  I
suppose there's another paper rattling about in my brain directed at the
powers that be in linguistics departments, but I don't suppose I could get
it published.

Sara

On Mon, 3 Nov 1997, Beth Boquet wrote:

> Sara--
> 
> I was wondering why the question, and now I know.  This may be 
> jumping the gun in terms of where you stand with thinking about a 
> paper between the relationship of linguistics and composition, but I 
> have been reading back issues of CCC, CE, and EJ, where the 
> linguistics-composition issue was hotly debated in the 50s and 60s.  
> It would be interesting to consider, I think, what we have to say 
> about linguistics and composition that is different from what we 
> *used* to say about it.  There's a lot different, I think.  And I 
> wonder if the response of your colleagues is related to the 
> assumption that maybe what we would say would not be so different 
> after all.
> 
> --Beth
> 
> 
> > Date:          Mon, 03 Nov 1997 10:39:48 -0600
> > From:          Sara Kimball <skimball@uts.cc.utexas.edu>
> > Subject:       re: What good is linguistics?
> > To:            Multiple recipients of list <wcenter@ttacs6.ttu.edu>
> > Reply-to:      wcenter@ttacs6.ttu.edu
> 
> > Susanna I want to thank you and everyone else who's responded to my
> > question for your thoughtful and *encouraging* replies.  I've been
> > trying to figure out whether I want to write a paper about linguistics and
> > composition, and your replies give me reason to believe it's anything but
> > a futile connection--not the message I get from many of my colleagues in
> > the English department.  Your replies also give me reason to believe that
> > the things I do in my grad and undergrad courses do succeed with some
> > people anyway, since the courses you've described as teaching or taking
> > sound a lot like what I do in my own courses.
> > 
> > Hmm, maybe I should invite y'all to the next meeting of the English
> > department at which the place of linguistics in our grad or undergrad
> > program comes up--but that's not an experience I'd inflict on anyone I
> > *like* ;-)
> > Sara
> > 
> > On Mon, 3 Nov 1997, Susanna Horn wrote:
> > 
> > > Allow me to add a vote for sociolinguistics.  I went kicking and screaming 
> > > into this course, but now I see it as one of the most practical courses that 
> > > I have taken.  It REALLY helped me understand my students' writing.  
> > > 
> > > Therefore, I would strongly recommend that future teachers take a 
> > > sociolinguistics course.  Understanding the social contexts and reasons for 
> > > linguistic forms and changes can help us talk more intelligently and be lots 
> > > more tolerant.                  
> > > 
> > > Sue Horn
> > > Developmental Programs
> > > The University of Akron
> > > Akron, Ohio
> > > 
> > > shorn@uakron.edu
> > > 
> > 
> > 
> Elizabeth Boquet
> Director, The Writing Center
> DM 130
> Fairfield University
> Fairfield, CT  06430
> Tel: 203/254-4000, ext. 2529
> E-Mail:  eboquet@fair1.fairfield.edu
>