"To use the word "linguist" in the sense of "person who speaks many languages" is slightly outdated, but it is a perfectly valid use of the word. If the army is unprepared to consider the issue of DADT, double-daring it on national TV will not be entirely productive. After all, both work with sick patients.Ĭoming back to the issue of Choi's dismissal, its impact is lessened by the fact that it was motivated by an obvious publicity gesture. This would be akin to demanding the right for nurses to call themselves doctors. As a supporter of this view, I feel that the two usages blur a necessary boundary, since linguists¹ and linguists² work with languages in very different ways and have very different qualifications. Some outspoken academic linguists feel that the two senses of "linguist" exist in an unequal relationship, the armed forces' sense borrowing prestige from the academic sense. (Although to be honest, “what family/sprachbund?” often does.) The question “what language?” doesn’t cross my mind. When I hear “linguist”, I wonder “what school?” or “what subfield?”. That’s not necessarily true for the military’s linguists, who are often untrained in the above fields and who might more properly be called translators or interpreters. To us, the default meaning of the term “linguist” at least implies someone who knows the essentials of phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics. It’s an important distinction on a forum which is populated with linguists in the analytical, research-oriented sense. Words can have different meanings, you know. Why the quotes? To use the word "linguist" in the sense of "person who speaks many languages" is slightly outdated, but it is a perfectly valid use of the word. Why the scare quotes? That's what the military calls them, and has for a very long time. Filed by Bill Poser under Language and politics.No doubt the resulting surge in morale in his unit will overcome the loss of its ability to communicate with the local population. In spite of President Obama's stated opposition to the military's "Don't ask, don't tell" policy, the Army has fired another gay "linguist", Lieutenant Dan Choi, an openly gay infantry patrol leader fluent in Arabic.
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