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From: Ross Clark <benlizro@ihug.co.nz>
Newsgroups: sci.lang
Subject: Re: Leonard Bloomfield died (18-4-1949)
Date: Sat, 20 Apr 2024 23:18:18 +1200
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On 20/04/2024 7:46 p.m., Aidan Kehoe wrote:
> 
>   Ar an fichiú lá de mí Aibreán, scríobh Ross Clark:
> 
>   > His birthday (1-4-1887) was noted  during my 2018 Linguistic Birthdays
>   > sequence. He was still very influential in linguistics when I began to learn
>   > about it in the 1960s, particularly for his book _Language_ (1933).
>   >
>   > Crystal has a quote from Chapter 2 of that book:
>   >
>   > "The most difficult step in the study of language is the first step. Again
>   > and again, scholarship has approached the study of language without actually
>   > entering upon it. Linguistic science arose from relatively practical
>   > preoccupations, such as the use of writing, the study of literature and
>   > especially of older records, and the prescription of elegant speech, but
>   > people can spend any amount of time on these things without actually
>   > entering into linguistic study."
> 
> A very small-tent approach, odd to take it as someone academically senior, who
> might be thought to have reason to increase his area of interest. Rules out
> PTD’s ‘The World’s Writing Systems’ for one.

But PTD did not spend his whole life studying writing! He did enter into 
linguistic study (even read Bloomfield, and was taught by one of his 
students). This study undoubtedly informed his treatment of writing 
systems.

Plus, I don't think Bloomfield is saying these other areas of study are 
worthless -- just that they should be distinguished from linguistic science.