The “Greenberg Controversy” and the Interdisciplinary Study of Global Linguistic Relationships**
The “Greenberg Controversy” and the Interdisciplinary Study of Global Linguistic Relationships**
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“格林伯格争议”和全球语言关系的跨学科研究**
DOI：
10.1002/bewi.202200038
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发表时间：
2023
影响因子：
0.6
通讯作者：
Kaplan, Judith R.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Kaplan, Judith R.
本文探讨了1987年约瑟夫·格林伯格的著作《美洲的语言》出版后的争议，涉及语言和语言学研究在重叠的学科传统中的作用。在这本书中，格林伯格提出了一个宏观层面的三方分类，反对当时占主导地位的细粒度分析，识别150到200个不同的语系。他的建议是一个具有里程碑意义的会议的主题，审查优点和缺点，其中未发表的会议记录是第一次在这里提出。对于美国土著语言的人类学和比较历史研究专家来说，格林伯格的干预强调了语言之间的紧张关系，被认为是一种抽象的研究对象，而语言被理解为特定文化知识的载体。对于体质人类学家和考古学家来说，他的理论最初在纲领性、实质性和方法论上都是偶然的。本文将展示跨学科的呼吁是如何被支持者视为一种美德，而被批评者视为一种恶习。本文进一步强调了整合科学和人文历史叙事的伦理原因。
This paper examines the controversy that followed the 1987 publication of Joseph Greenberg's book,Language in the Americas, attending to the role of language and linguistic research within overlapping disciplinary traditions. With this text, Greenberg presented a macro‐level tripartite classification that opposed then dominant fine‐grained analyses recognizing anywhere from 150 to 200 distinct language families. His proposal was the subject of a landmark conference, examining strengths and weaknesses, the unpublished proceedings of which are presented here for the first time. For specialists in the anthropological and comparative‐historical study of Indigenous American languages, Greenberg's intervention highlighted the tension between language, conceived as an abstract object of study, and languages, understood to be carriers of specific cultural knowledge. For physical anthropologists and archaeologists, his theory was initially fortuitous on programmatic, substantive, and methodological grounds. The essay will show how interdisciplinary appeals were figured by supporters as a virtue, and by critics as a vice. The essay further highlights ethical reasons for integrating historical narratives of science and the humanities.