Many years ago I got talking to someone I met on the train (.. as you do, as you do …). He asked me what I did for a living. At the time I was a student. ‘I am a linguist,’ I replied, ever so proud of my field.
‘Oh a linguist…’ after a pause, he continued, ‘…so what is it that you do?’
In an attempt to explain without sounding condescendent, I tried another angle.
‘My subject area is the discipline of Linguistics,’ I replied, hoping that that would satisfy him.
‘Oh.. Linguistics…’ Another pause. ‘So what is that then; accents and dialects?’
By that point, I realised that trying to get away with replying and saying that Linguistics was what Linguists studied, would neither explain to him nor make it clearer for me. And I admitted defeat. ‘Do you know something?’ I said admittedly, ‘I don’t actually know myself!’
And that is the truth. That is the absolute truth. What is it that Linguists do? And perhaps more importantly what is Linguistics?
I am sure that if Professor Jenny Cheshire, my ex-professor from my university days is reading this (I very nearly wrote, ‘my old professor’.. of course Prof Cheshire, as I discovered when I finally met her as a young student, and contrary to my preconceived image of her, was in fact extremely young to be a Professor!) then she may be rather disappointed in me. Disappointed in the fact that, her excellence and knowledge in the field still failed to satisfy me with a viable definition of what my passion is all about.
So getting back to the man on the train, who sparked this chain of thought into me. He asked a most valid question; one that those of us who are in the field or have been, ought to ask ourselves. Maybe it is time that we listened to Professor Crystal, when he says in that infamous, Cambridge Encyclopedia, that ‘it is about time that there was another authority’.
Thank you Sir, now lets make way for that new authority. Because quite frankly I am sick and tired of people, who immediately assume that Linguistics is all about accents and dialects and not much else.
It is time for Integrational Linguistics to step forward and not be that shadow.
A big hip-hip hooray for all integrational linguists out there!
