Here hear! I don't remember which it is, so, in linguist fashion, i'm covering my ass: i'd rather be wrong once but right, instead of doubly wrong.
I'm a dual major, Math and Linguistics (UNC-CH), and i'm a unix admin in the physics department. I spend about two-thirds of my day in rigorous, anal, detail-oriented systems, and then step into happy handwaving with my linguistics classes. It's depressing.
For example, i'm taking the introduction to syntax course. Our first assignment was to prove A as a seperate lexical category from D, N, and V given a little dataset. I turned in a couple pages of logic, most people turned in a single sheet of paragraphs. He handed mine back, ungraded, with the comment "Please re-do this, writing your respons in clear and prsuasive prose." Most frustrating.
The only justification i can see for the feeble-minded attitude linguists favor is that there aren't enough Really Smart people to handle all that formalism. Also, we Morlocks still don't have tools quite up to the task of abstracting out to the hand-waving level.
That said, i'm keen on starting the Anal Linguist Underground. It's the ALU, not an ALU...
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Date: 2004-02-01 05:46 am (UTC)I'm a dual major, Math and Linguistics (UNC-CH), and i'm a unix admin in the physics department. I spend about two-thirds of my day in rigorous, anal, detail-oriented systems, and then step into happy handwaving with my linguistics classes. It's depressing.
For example, i'm taking the introduction to syntax course. Our first assignment was to prove A as a seperate lexical category from D, N, and V given a little dataset. I turned in a couple pages of logic, most people turned in a single sheet of paragraphs. He handed mine back, ungraded, with the comment "Please re-do this, writing your respons in clear and prsuasive prose." Most frustrating.
The only justification i can see for the feeble-minded attitude linguists favor is that there aren't enough Really Smart people to handle all that formalism. Also, we Morlocks still don't have tools quite up to the task of abstracting out to the hand-waving level.
That said, i'm keen on starting the Anal Linguist Underground. It's the ALU, not an ALU...