George W. Grace
Encyclopedia
George W. Grace, born on 8 September 1921 in Corinth, Mississippi
and raised on the Gulf Coast, is an emeritus professor of linguistics
at the University of Hawaii
specializing in historical
and comparative linguistics
, ethnolinguistics
, and Austronesian languages
, especially the Oceanic languages of Melanesia
. He joined the Department of Linguistics in 1964, serving three years as chair (1966–1969) and three decades as editor of Oceanic Linguistics
(1962–1991), a journal he founded while teaching anthropology at Southern Illinois University
(1960–1964).
After service with the United States Army Air Corps
(1942–1946), he remained in Europe
to earn his first university degree, a licence
in political science from the University of Geneva
in 1948. He then accepted a position as a junior research anthropologist at the University of California, Berkeley
, where he did fieldwork in 1951 on the Luiseño language
, collaborating with Alfred L. Kroeber
on The Sparkman Grammar of Luiseño (University of California Press
, 1960). In 1953–1955 he was a research associate for the Tri-Institutional Pacific Program (a consortium of Yale University
, the University of Hawaii
, and the Bernice P. Bishop Museum in Honolulu) and then for Yale University conducting research in Austronesian linguistics. In 1955–1956 he conducted a survey in the field of many languages in the Solomon Islands
, New Caledonia
, Papua New Guinea
, and the former Netherlands New Guinea. In 1956–1957 he was an associate in Malayo-Polynesian linguistics at the Bishop Museum.
He completed a Ph.D. dissertation in 1958 under Joseph Greenberg
at Columbia University
, which was published the following year under the title The Position of the Polynesian Languages within the Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) Language Family. After teaching at the Woman's College of the University of North Carolina (now, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
) (1958–1959), at Northwestern University
(1959–1960), and at Southern Illinois University (1960–1963), and serving as scholar in residence at the East-West Center
in Honolulu (1964), he was hired by the newly formed Department of Linguistics at the University of Hawaii, where he has remained, apart from further fieldwork in New Caledonia (1970, 1971–1973) and New Guinea (1976).
In the locutionary interpretation, then, what we might regard as "the translation" takes the form of a linguistic expression. Note that in this interpretation no claim is made about the understandability of the translation—i.e., about who might be expected to be able to understand it. In the perlocutionary interpretation, on the other hand, "the translation" should probably be thought of, not as a linguistic expression, but rather as the act of explaining—that is, as a performance, mainly verbal, by the translator. Although the performance of the translator (or better, "explainer"?) would involve the uttering of linguistic expressions, and although these linguistic expressions could be recorded, they are likely to lack cohesion. They are likely to include questions, answers to questions, trials and errors, false starts and restatements, etc., and they might have been accompanied by extensive non-verbal clues. It would hardly seem appropriate to think of such recorded explanations as themselves constituting the translation.
might be stated as follows: there is a common world out there and
our languages are analogous to maps of this world .. Thus, this
common world is represented or 'mapped' (with greater or less distortion)
by all languages.world up' - in the way they ' classify' its phenomena ,see Grace, G.W. 1987. The linguistic construction of reality
This model does not corresponds to the reality 1:1,there are distortions and disturbances.Each language has a slightly different mapping
which could be explained by the fact,that different people have different understanding ,for example having temporal phenomena,see Gumperz / Levinson (eds.) 1997:55 ff .39
knowledge of the real world assumes central importance.
Emphasis is placed upon the fact that we do not have direct access
to the real world itself, but only to the data about it provided by
our senses. And these senses provide very incomplete information.
Our eyes, for example, respond only to a very narrow band of
wavelengths within the electromagnetic spectrum, our ears only to
a certain limited range of vibratory frequencies in the air or some
other medium , etc.
according to the reality-construction
view, what we a recalling the intertranslatability postulate is false. see Grace, G.W. 1987. The linguistic construction of reality
The reality constructing hypothesis underlines the lack of perfectness of the linguistic construction which is justified by lack of precision provided by our senses.
Corinth, Mississippi
Corinth is a city in Alcorn County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 14,054 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Alcorn County. Its ZIP codes are 38834 and 38835.- History :...
and raised on the Gulf Coast, is an emeritus professor of linguistics
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
at the University of Hawaii
University of Hawaii
The University of Hawaii System, formally the University of Hawaii and popularly known as UH, is a public, co-educational college and university system that confers associate, bachelor, master, and doctoral degrees through three university campuses, seven community college campuses, an employment...
specializing in historical
Historical linguistics
Historical linguistics is the study of language change. It has five main concerns:* to describe and account for observed changes in particular languages...
and comparative linguistics
Comparative linguistics
Comparative linguistics is a branch of historical linguistics that is concerned with comparing languages to establish their historical relatedness....
, ethnolinguistics
Ethnolinguistics
Ethnolinguistics is a field of linguistics which studies the relationship between language and culture, and the way different ethnic groups perceive the world. It is the combination between ethnology and linguistics. The former refers to the way of life of an entire community i.e...
, and Austronesian languages
Austronesian languages
The Austronesian languages are a language family widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia that are spoken by about 386 million people. It is on par with Indo-European, Niger-Congo, Afroasiatic and Uralic as one of the...
, especially the Oceanic languages of Melanesia
Melanesia
Melanesia is a subregion of Oceania extending from the western end of the Pacific Ocean to the Arafura Sea, and eastward to Fiji. The region comprises most of the islands immediately north and northeast of Australia...
. He joined the Department of Linguistics in 1964, serving three years as chair (1966–1969) and three decades as editor of Oceanic Linguistics
Oceanic Linguistics
Oceanic Linguistics is an international academic journal devoted to the study of the thousand-odd indigenous languages of the Oceanic area and parts of Southeast Asia, including the aboriginal languages of Australia, the Papuan languages of New Guinea, and the languages of the Austronesian family...
(1962–1991), a journal he founded while teaching anthropology at Southern Illinois University
Southern Illinois University
Southern Illinois University is a state university system based in Carbondale, Illinois, in the Southern Illinois region of the state, with multiple campuses...
(1960–1964).
After service with the United States Army Air Corps
United States Army Air Corps
The United States Army Air Corps was a forerunner of the United States Air Force. Renamed from the Air Service on 2 July 1926, it was part of the United States Army and the predecessor of the United States Army Air Forces , established in 1941...
(1942–1946), he remained in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
to earn his first university degree, a licence
Licentiate
Licentiate is the title of a person who holds an academic degree called a licence. The term may derive from the Latin licentia docendi, meaning permission to teach. The term may also derive from the Latin licentia ad practicandum, which signified someone who held a certificate of competence to...
in political science from the University of Geneva
University of Geneva
The University of Geneva is a public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland.It was founded in 1559 by John Calvin, as a theological seminary and law school. It remained focused on theology until the 17th century, when it became a center for Enlightenment scholarship. In 1873, it...
in 1948. He then accepted a position as a junior research anthropologist at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
, where he did fieldwork in 1951 on the Luiseño language
Luiseño language
The Luiseño language is an Uto-Aztecan language of California spoken by the Luiseño, a Native American people who at the time of the first contacts with the Spanish in the 16th century inhabited the coastal area of southern California, ranging 50 miles from the southern part of Los Angeles County,...
, collaborating with Alfred L. Kroeber
Alfred L. Kroeber
Alfred Louis Kroeber was an American anthropologist. He was the first professor appointed to the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, and played an integral role in the early days of its Museum of Anthropology, where he served as director from 1909 through...
on The Sparkman Grammar of Luiseño (University of California Press
University of California Press
University of California Press, also known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish books and papers for the faculty of the University of California, established 25 years earlier in 1868...
, 1960). In 1953–1955 he was a research associate for the Tri-Institutional Pacific Program (a consortium of Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, the University of Hawaii
University of Hawaii
The University of Hawaii System, formally the University of Hawaii and popularly known as UH, is a public, co-educational college and university system that confers associate, bachelor, master, and doctoral degrees through three university campuses, seven community college campuses, an employment...
, and the Bernice P. Bishop Museum in Honolulu) and then for Yale University conducting research in Austronesian linguistics. In 1955–1956 he conducted a survey in the field of many languages in the Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands is a sovereign state in Oceania, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands. It covers a land mass of . The capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal...
, New Caledonia
New Caledonia
New Caledonia is a special collectivity of France located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, east of Australia and about from Metropolitan France. The archipelago, part of the Melanesia subregion, includes the main island of Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, the Belep archipelago, the Isle of...
, Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...
, and the former Netherlands New Guinea. In 1956–1957 he was an associate in Malayo-Polynesian linguistics at the Bishop Museum.
He completed a Ph.D. dissertation in 1958 under Joseph Greenberg
Joseph Greenberg
Joseph Harold Greenberg was a prominent and controversial American linguist, principally known for his work in two areas, linguistic typology and the genetic classification of languages.- Early life and career :...
at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, which was published the following year under the title The Position of the Polynesian Languages within the Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) Language Family. After teaching at the Woman's College of the University of North Carolina (now, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
University of North Carolina at Greensboro
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro , also known as UNC Greensboro, is a public university in Greensboro, North Carolina, United States and is a constituent institution of the University of North Carolina system. The university offers more than 100 undergraduate, 61 master's and 26...
) (1958–1959), at Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
(1959–1960), and at Southern Illinois University (1960–1963), and serving as scholar in residence at the East-West Center
East-West Center
The East–West Center , headquartered in Honolulu, Hawaii, is an education and research organization established by the U.S. Congress in 1960 to strengthen relations and understanding among the peoples and nations of Asia, the Pacific and the United States....
in Honolulu (1964), he was hired by the newly formed Department of Linguistics at the University of Hawaii, where he has remained, apart from further fieldwork in New Caledonia (1970, 1971–1973) and New Guinea (1976).
The problem of translation
The postulate that it is possible to translate anything (no matter what) into any language (no matter which), he distinguished two idealized interpretations of the postulate. These were called the locutionary and perlocutionary interpretations. In the locutionary interpretation the claim is that, given any linguistic expression in any language, it is possible to find in any other language a linguistic expression with the same content. In the perlocutionary interpretation the claim is that anything (i.e., anything sayable) can be made understandable to anyone by means of that person's own language.In the locutionary interpretation, then, what we might regard as "the translation" takes the form of a linguistic expression. Note that in this interpretation no claim is made about the understandability of the translation—i.e., about who might be expected to be able to understand it. In the perlocutionary interpretation, on the other hand, "the translation" should probably be thought of, not as a linguistic expression, but rather as the act of explaining—that is, as a performance, mainly verbal, by the translator. Although the performance of the translator (or better, "explainer"?) would involve the uttering of linguistic expressions, and although these linguistic expressions could be recorded, they are likely to lack cohesion. They are likely to include questions, answers to questions, trials and errors, false starts and restatements, etc., and they might have been accompanied by extensive non-verbal clues. It would hardly seem appropriate to think of such recorded explanations as themselves constituting the translation.
Mapping view
The basic epistemological assumption of the mapping viewmight be stated as follows: there is a common world out there and
our languages are analogous to maps of this world .. Thus, this
common world is represented or 'mapped' (with greater or less distortion)
by all languages.world up' - in the way they ' classify' its phenomena ,see Grace, G.W. 1987. The linguistic construction of reality
This model does not corresponds to the reality 1:1,there are distortions and disturbances.Each language has a slightly different mapping
which could be explained by the fact,that different people have different understanding ,for example having temporal phenomena,see Gumperz / Levinson (eds.) 1997:55 ff .39
Reality Construction view
In the realtty-construction view , the imperfectness of our access toknowledge of the real world assumes central importance.
Emphasis is placed upon the fact that we do not have direct access
to the real world itself, but only to the data about it provided by
our senses. And these senses provide very incomplete information.
Our eyes, for example, respond only to a very narrow band of
wavelengths within the electromagnetic spectrum, our ears only to
a certain limited range of vibratory frequencies in the air or some
other medium , etc.
according to the reality-construction
view, what we a recalling the intertranslatability postulate is false. see Grace, G.W. 1987. The linguistic construction of reality
The reality constructing hypothesis underlines the lack of perfectness of the linguistic construction which is justified by lack of precision provided by our senses.