Why do linguists get no respect?

Question

Inspired by this extract from a Geoff Nunberg piece on Language Log, I wanted to ask the same question of members of this forum: Why do linguists get no respect?

The Times piece came to mind last week as a few of us languagelog contributors were chewing the electronic fat over the perennial question of why linguists get no respect. Despite the best -- and occasionally, bestselling -- efforts of popularizers, people seem disinclined to give up their cherished preconceptions about language, from their conviction that African American Vernacular English is slovenly and without rules to their certainty that Elizabethan English persists in Appalachian hollows.

Kooyeen · Accepted Answer

Anonymous people seem disinclined to give up their cherished preconceptions about language

Interesting fact.
I guess it's because language is something everyone uses and is familiar with, so there's a higher probability that enough people convince themselves they are experts and know a lot about it without having ever studied or understood anything, and there's a higher probability enough people believe something just because it "seems" to make sense. Everybody knows what language is, everyone can use it, there's nothing to understand, some things are so obvious... no, that's the trap.
There are a lot of people who talk about a language (grammar, etc, whatever comes to your mind) like they are experts, but they are actually not. Let's call them "opinionists" (Darn, what's the English word for those people? Don't you guys have them on TV?) Yet, you don't hear nearly as many people talking about quantum mechanics the same way, or brain surgery. That's because those subjects are not as widespread and as present in everyday situations as "language", so people's perception is not "That's simple, I know it" in those cases. One subject that is becoming like "language" is "Information Technology": everyone can use a PC, it's simple, technology is everywhere, every day... and so there begin to be several "experts", with expert "opinions".

Everyone is an expert at English, it's so simple. They gave a special present to my husband and I? It's wrong. Would you say "They gave a present to I"? No. Didn't you go to school? They teach that in elementary school, but I guess you are too uneducated to even understand what I am saying. It's so simple... how can you not understand that simple rule? I am an expert... Duh!

Anonymous · Answer

Now that's a quality post, K. <img src="http://www.EnglishForward.com/emoticons/emotion-5.gif"/>

CalifJim · Answer

AnonymousWhy do linguists get no respect?

I'm not so sure they don't. It's a very specialized field, and the general public is not interested enough to have much of an opinion one way or another. Now if linguists made life-saving discoveries like researchers in medicine, it would be a different story.

CJ

Anonymous · Answer

CalifJim
AnonymousWhy do linguists get no respect?
I'm not so sure they don't. It's a very specialized field, and the general public is not interested enough to have much of an opinion one way or another. Now if linguists made life-saving discoveries like researchers in medicine, it would be a different story.

CJ

Well, I guess the "discovery" that African American Vernacular English is not slovenly or without rules is not really life-saving, but it sure changed a lot of people's lives.

MrPedantic · Answer

AnonymousWell, I guess the "discovery" that African American Vernacular English is not slovenly or without rules is not really life-saving, but it sure changed a lot of people's lives.

Both the "discovery" and the notion it supplants, if accurately described by Anon, are based on a fiction (that kinds of language have degrees of slovenliness). Which is not to say that fictions can't change lives, of course.

Why do linguists get no respect?

I'm not sure why any particular group should "get respect". No doubt some linguists excite the admiration of those who know (of) them, for one reason and another. Others probably do nothing of any note; much like certain bus conductors, osteopaths, milkmen, box office attendants, student nurses, janitors, members of the House of Commons, C&W singers, solicitor's clerks, bank managers, IT helpdesk operatives, first violins, radiologists, chippies, toxicologists, coleopterists, etc.

MrP

Kooyeen · Answer

MrPedantic

Why do linguists get no respect?
I'm not sure why any particular group should "get respect".

LOL, that's a good point too. Linguists get no respect, ok. But why should they? People who burp loudly at formal dinners get no respect either, and that's unfair, I know. Everyone needs respect!

Anyway, no matter what linguists discover, people will never believe them. Ebonics might be treated as language, but I don't think I am likely to hear a lot of people say "Oh, until yesterday I thought black people were just uneducated and couldn't speak properly, but now I know it's not so and I changed my mind: the are not uneducated at all!" - In my opinion they'll still stick to their opinion "black speech = bad grammar", instead of changing their opinion. No one listens to linguists, we already know everything about English, don't we?

These videos are interesting, by the way:

Anonymous · Answer

<No one listens to linguists, we already know everything about English, don't we?>

Time to close this forum then?

Anonymous · Answer

Guess it's time to continue this discussion over at Language Log. Most of the replies here border on trolling and playground games.

Anonymous · Answer

<These videos are interesting, by the way:>

Guess he's never heard of bidialectalism.

Anonymous · Answer

Second video. Around 6:17 mins.

"Some African American children are beat up for speaking mainstream or standard English."

Good grammar?

Why do linguists get no respect?

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