The Context of Linguistics
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چکیده
There is a feeling abroad in some quarters that linguists are on the endangered species list. The reasoning seems to be that, when the climate changes, the ones who are most exposed are those who have become so specialized as to live off just one particular kind of tree. Most subjects have their periods of specialization: moments when the focus is narrowed, the perspective sharpened, and the rest of the world shut out. It is often said that this has to be so, that such specializing is a necessary condition for a great leap forward; and this may well be true, if we are talking about specialization as a posture for research. It is less certain that it need determine the scope of operations of a university department, or of its offerings to its students. To be highly specialized is in its way a kind of defence, a means of protecting one's identity. We are constantly being reminded of how many others feed on language: philosophers, psychologists, rhetoricians, speech pathologists, communications and media experts, and many more besides. Yet there are significant aspects of language that none of these groups takes account of; so linguists have tended to retreat and to consolidate the terrain that is out of others' reach. How often do we read statements like "Linguists concern themselves only with invariant forms", or "Linguists ignore the cognitive aspects of language", or "Rhetoric is not acknowledged to be a part of linguistics". It must be said at the outset that there have always been linguists whom this image did not fit. But it is true that during the 1960s the majority, in the United States at least, did adopt a highly specialized work style. Faced with a choice between two ways of being unique, one
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