Daniel Everett

Daniel Leonard Everett (ur. 1951 w Holtville w Kalifornii) – amerykański lingwista, badacz amazońskiego plemienia Pirahã i ich języka^[1].

Objął funkcję szefa Wydziału Lingwistyki, Literatury i Kultury na Uniwersytecie Stanowym Illinois. Przedtem uczył na Uniwersytecie w Manchester oraz był szefem Wydziału Lingwistyki Uniwersytetu w Pittsburghu.

Mając 18 lat ożenił się z Keren Graham, córką chrześcijańskich misjonarzy. W 1976 razem z żoną ukończyli kierunek Misji Zagranicznych (Foreign Missions) w Moody Bible Institute w Chicago. Zapisali się do SIL International (Summer Institute of Linguistics), gdzie uczy się misjonarzy szybkiej nauki języków obcych, tak by w jak najszybciej mogli przyswoić język tubylców i tłumaczyć Biblię na ich język.

Z powodu zdolności językowych został poproszony o badanie Pirahã, których języka organizacja SIL dotąd nie zdołała poznać, pomimo 20 lat badań. W 1977 razem z żoną i trojgiem dzieci przenieśli się do Brazylii, gdzie przez rok uczyli się portugalskiego, zanim zamieszkali w wiosce Pirahã u ujścia rzeki Maici.

Odniósł pewne początkowe sukcesy, ale SIL utracił kontrakt z rządem brazylijskim, więc jesienią 1978 zapisał się do brazylijskiego Uniwersytetu Stanowego w Campinas i kontynuował badania pod jego auspicjami. Skoncentrował się na teorii Noama Chomsky’ego i w swojej rozprawie doktorskiej w 1983 przeprowadził analizę języka pirahã zgodnie z jego teorią.

W jednej z misji badawczych w 1993 odkrył nowy język – oro win^[2] – jeden z niewielu, które używają spółgłosek drżących wargowych.

W trakcie badań doszedł do wniosku, że zasady uniwersalnej gramatyki Chomsky’ego, a w szczególności podstawowa zasada rekurencji nie ma zastosowania w języku pirahã. Opublikowany w Current Antrolopology w 2005 artykuł Cultural Constraints on Grammar and Cognition in Pirahã^[3] spowodował kontrowersje w dziedzinie lingwistyki^[4].

Pod wpływem koncepcji prawdy, jaką napotkał u ludu Pirahã, powoli tracił wiarę i ostatecznie stał się ateistą. Jak mówi poważne wątpliwości miał już w 1982, a definitywnie stracił wiarę w 1985 po tym, jak spędził rok na MIT. Przez 19 lat nikomu o tym nie powiedział, a kiedy to zrobił, jego małżeństwo zakończyło się rozwodem i dwoje z jego trojga dzieci całkowicie zerwało z nim kontakt^[5].

Napisał książkę Nie śpij, tu są węże : życie i język a amazońskiej dżungli^[6]^[7] wydaną w listopadzie 2008.

Przypisy

↑ Mike Sajna: Daniel Everett. [w:] University of Pittsburgh [on-line]. University Times, 13 października 1994. [dostęp 2008-11-17]. [zarchiwizowane z tego adresu (4 marca 2016)]. (ang.).
↑ Bruce Steele: Linguistics professor discovers new language in Brazilian rain forest. [w:] University of Pittsburgh [on-line]. University Times, 13 października 1994. [dostęp 2008-11-11]. Cytat: Pitt linguistics department chairperson Daniel Everett found a new sound and a whole new language last spring in the Brazilian rain forest. The language, called "Oro Win" (pronounced OR-oh WEEN), is spoken by only about a half-dozen of the 40-50 members of the tribe of the same name. The Oro Win live at the headwaters of the Pacaas-Novos River, itself a tributary of the Mamore River along Brazil's border with Bolivia. (ang.).
↑ Daniel Everett. Cultural Constraints on Grammar and Cognition in Pirahã. „Current Anthropology”. Volume 46, Number 4, s. 621-46, August-October 2005.
↑ Patrick Barkham: The power of speech. The Guardian, 10 listopada 2008. [dostęp 2008-11-11]. (ang.). "These doubts exploded three years ago, like "a bomb thrown into the party" in the words of psychologist and linguist Steven Pinker, who initially welcomed Everett's findings against Chomsky before becoming more critical. In 2005, Everett published a paper about the Pirahã that rocked the foundations of universal grammar. Chomsky had recently refined his theory to argue that recursion - the linguistic practice of inserting phrases inside others - was the cornerstone of all languages. (An example of recursion is extending the sentence "Daniel Everett talked about the story of his life" to read, "Daniel Everett flew to London and talked about the story of his life".) Everett argued that he could find no evidence of recursion in Pirahã. This was deeply troubling for Chomsky's theory. If the Pirahã didn't use recursion, then how could it be a fundamental part of a universal grammar embedded in our genes? And if the Pirahã didn't use recursion, then is their language - and, by implication, other languages - determined not by biology but by culture? [...] Everett's claims created a furore. Chomskyites rushed to defend universal grammar and academics cast doubt on Everett's view of the Pirahã. Nineteenth-century anthropologists had judged exotic peoples similarly, saying they had no creation myths and apparently crude languages that could not count or convey abstract thought, before it was proved it was our erroneous understanding of these "primitive" societies that was primitive. "By framing his observations as an anti-Chomsky discovery rather than as un-PC Eurocentric condescension, Everett was able to get away with claims that would have aroused the fury of anthropologists in any other context," wrote the increasingly sceptical Pinker, who argued that even if there was "a grain of truth" in the Pirahã's preoccupation with the here-and-now, it was by no means unique to their society. In other words, Everett was an almost racist throwback to the days of, well, missionaries."
↑ Liz Else, Lucy Middleton. Out on a limb over language. „New Scientist”. Vol 197 No 2639, s. 42-44, 19 stycznia 2008. "How did being with the Pirahã change your thinking? They lived so well without religion and they were so happy. Also they didn't believe what I was saying because I didn't have evidence for it, and that made me think. They would try so hard to understand what I was saying, but it was obviously utterly irrelevant to them. I began to think: what am I doing here, giving them these 2000-year-old concepts when everything of value I can think of to communicate to them they already have?"
↑ "Don’t Sleep There Are Snakes, Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle" Daniel Everett. [dostęp 2008-11-11]. [zarchiwizowane z tego adresu (21 grudnia 2008)]. Cytat: Although Daniel Everett was a missionary, far from converting the Pirahas, they converted him. He shows the slow, meticulous steps by which he gradually mastered their language and his gradual realisation that its unusual nature closely reflected its speakers’ startlingly original perceptions of the world. He describes how he began to realise that his discoveries about the Piraha language opened up a new way of understanding how language works in our minds and in our lives, and that this way was utterly at odds with Noam Chomsky’s universally accepted linguistic theories. The perils of passionate academic opposition were then swiftly conjoined to those of the Amazon in a debate whose outcome has yet to be won. ISBN 978-1-84668-030-4
↑ Nie śpij, tu są węże : życie i język a amazońskiej dżungli [online], www.krakow-biblioteka.sowa.pl [dostęp 2023-12-30] .

Linki zewnętrzne

Daniel L. Everett's Website. latinostudies.illinoisstate.edu. [zarchiwizowane z tego adresu (2010-06-14)].
Edge: RECURSION AND HUMAN THOUGHT, by Daniel L. Everett

[1] Mike Sajna: Daniel Everett. [w:] University of Pittsburgh [on-line]. University Times, 13 października 1994. [dostęp 2008-11-17]. [zarchiwizowane z tego adresu (4 marca 2016)]. (ang.).

[2] Bruce Steele: Linguistics professor discovers new language in Brazilian rain forest. [w:] University of Pittsburgh [on-line]. University Times, 13 października 1994. [dostęp 2008-11-11]. Cytat: Pitt linguistics department chairperson Daniel Everett found a new sound and a whole new language last spring in the Brazilian rain forest. The language, called "Oro Win" (pronounced OR-oh WEEN), is spoken by only about a half-dozen of the 40-50 members of the tribe of the same name. The Oro Win live at the headwaters of the Pacaas-Novos River, itself a tributary of the Mamore River along Brazil's border with Bolivia. (ang.).

[3] Daniel Everett. Cultural Constraints on Grammar and Cognition in Pirahã. „Current Anthropology”. Volume 46, Number 4, s. 621-46, August-October 2005.

[4] Patrick Barkham: The power of speech. The Guardian, 10 listopada 2008. [dostęp 2008-11-11]. (ang.). "These doubts exploded three years ago, like "a bomb thrown into the party" in the words of psychologist and linguist Steven Pinker, who initially welcomed Everett's findings against Chomsky before becoming more critical. In 2005, Everett published a paper about the Pirahã that rocked the foundations of universal grammar. Chomsky had recently refined his theory to argue that recursion - the linguistic practice of inserting phrases inside others - was the cornerstone of all languages. (An example of recursion is extending the sentence "Daniel Everett talked about the story of his life" to read, "Daniel Everett flew to London and talked about the story of his life".) Everett argued that he could find no evidence of recursion in Pirahã. This was deeply troubling for Chomsky's theory. If the Pirahã didn't use recursion, then how could it be a fundamental part of a universal grammar embedded in our genes? And if the Pirahã didn't use recursion, then is their language - and, by implication, other languages - determined not by biology but by culture? [...] Everett's claims created a furore. Chomskyites rushed to defend universal grammar and academics cast doubt on Everett's view of the Pirahã. Nineteenth-century anthropologists had judged exotic peoples similarly, saying they had no creation myths and apparently crude languages that could not count or convey abstract thought, before it was proved it was our erroneous understanding of these "primitive" societies that was primitive. "By framing his observations as an anti-Chomsky discovery rather than as un-PC Eurocentric condescension, Everett was able to get away with claims that would have aroused the fury of anthropologists in any other context," wrote the increasingly sceptical Pinker, who argued that even if there was "a grain of truth" in the Pirahã's preoccupation with the here-and-now, it was by no means unique to their society. In other words, Everett was an almost racist throwback to the days of, well, missionaries."

[5] Liz Else, Lucy Middleton. Out on a limb over language. „New Scientist”. Vol 197 No 2639, s. 42-44, 19 stycznia 2008. "How did being with the Pirahã change your thinking? They lived so well without religion and they were so happy. Also they didn't believe what I was saying because I didn't have evidence for it, and that made me think. They would try so hard to understand what I was saying, but it was obviously utterly irrelevant to them. I began to think: what am I doing here, giving them these 2000-year-old concepts when everything of value I can think of to communicate to them they already have?"

[6] "Don’t Sleep There Are Snakes, Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle" Daniel Everett. [dostęp 2008-11-11]. [zarchiwizowane z tego adresu (21 grudnia 2008)]. Cytat: Although Daniel Everett was a missionary, far from converting the Pirahas, they converted him. He shows the slow, meticulous steps by which he gradually mastered their language and his gradual realisation that its unusual nature closely reflected its speakers’ startlingly original perceptions of the world. He describes how he began to realise that his discoveries about the Piraha language opened up a new way of understanding how language works in our minds and in our lives, and that this way was utterly at odds with Noam Chomsky’s universally accepted linguistic theories. The perils of passionate academic opposition were then swiftly conjoined to those of the Amazon in a debate whose outcome has yet to be won. ISBN 978-1-84668-030-4

[7] Nie śpij, tu są węże : życie i język a amazońskiej dżungli [online], www.krakow-biblioteka.sowa.pl [dostęp 2023-12-30] .

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