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Should a linguist be a polyglot? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| chenshujian Diglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5238 days ago 122 posts - 139 votes  Speaks: Mandarin*, English Studies: French | Message 1 of 29 11 October 2012 at 4:37am | IP Logged | |||||
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In reality, is it necessary that a linguist(meaning a researcher, a scientist in languages) should be a polyglot? Edited by Fasulye on 11 October 2012 at 3:08pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| mahasiswa Pentaglot Groupie Canada Joined 4220 days ago 91 posts - 142 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, German, Malay Studies: Arabic (Egyptian), Persian, Russian, Turkish, Mandarin, Hindi | Message 2 of 29 11 October 2012 at 4:46am | IP Logged | |||||
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I say no, but because I like to show off what I learn, I enjoy studying foreign languages, so whatever I learn
about linguistics is complementary. Otherwise, I find that linguistics is a very dull subject to approach directly among non-linguists, so having a couple languages in the pocket is a very fun way to show off your interests. Depends what you're doing linguistics for, I suppose, but it's not all ego either. Look at the work of Kenneth L. Hale, George Steiner, or Saussure. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| chenshujian Diglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5238 days ago 122 posts - 139 votes Speaks: Mandarin*, English Studies: French | Message 3 of 29 11 October 2012 at 8:26am | IP Logged | |||||
You learn your languages one by one, or simultaneously?
Edited by chenshujian on 11 October 2012 at 8:26am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4427 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 4 of 29 11 October 2012 at 9:02am | IP Logged | |||||
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If by polyglot you mean being able to read, write and converse in many languages, I say no. However, all the linguists I have known have a good theoretical knowledge of many languages - they understand the grammar, the structure etc.
You can also distinguish between theoretical linguistics (think Chomsky), which works at a very abstract level, and comparative linguistics, where indeed you contrast grammar and syntax in various languages. For the latter, I think it is a must to at least have a passive knowledge of a good number of different languages. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| chenshujian Diglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5238 days ago 122 posts - 139 votes Speaks: Mandarin*, English Studies: French | Message 5 of 29 11 October 2012 at 9:12am | IP Logged | |||||
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I am learning French and now reache B1 level.
I live in my home country with little chances to hear or speak French except by internet. Can you give me any suggestion on French learning?
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4495 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 6 of 29 11 October 2012 at 9:23am | IP Logged | |||||
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Look harder - you are in China, not Timor-Leste.
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 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6491 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 7 of 29 11 October 2012 at 9:52am | IP Logged | |||||
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A person from Timor Leste would probably have Portuguese as hist/her native language, and that would be a better basis for learning French than any variant of Chinese. But apart from that this thread started out with the question "In reality, is it necessary that a linguist(meaning a researcher, a scientist in languages) should be a polyglot?". Personal advice about language learning has little to do with that question.
Personally I wouldn't trust a theoretical linguist who hadn't at least a theoretical background in a number of languages. For me Noam Chomsky should not be seen as an exception, though I'm not sure his theories and way of dealing with grammar would be different if he had known more than English and maybe the remnants of a shadow of Jiddisch. However being able to speak those languages may not be necessary, and 'pure' monoglots can still say relevant things about details in their own language - for instance by describing local dialects or discussing the use of specific idioms. It may also be possible to study sociological aspects of linguistics without knowing the languages of important groups in a population. Linguistics is not only a theoretical science which deals with abstract models for language in general, but also a practical discipline. Edited by Iversen on 11 October 2012 at 9:53am 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6370 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 8 of 29 11 October 2012 at 11:04am | IP Logged | |||||
Not to keep pushing the thread off topic, but according to Wikipedia:
Portugese is not a very common native language to the East Timorese. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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