On 2008-06-09 08:40, Brian M. Scott wrote:
> > There are plenty of brilliant people who have idées fixes
> > and who construct intellectual houses of cards. While I
> > disagree with Brian regarding his opinion of Vennemann, I
> > don't he has insulted Vennemann in an ad hominem manner.
> > He just doesn't accept the man's work, that's all.
>
> Precisely.
Neither do I, for that matter. I've met Theo Vennemann many times and
have the best opinion of him as a person (a genial man who, as far as my
experience goes, never takes personal offence at the criticism of his
ideas) _and_ as a scholar. Much of what he's published is top quality
(especially, within my scope of interest, his work on syllable
structure). It just so happens that the "Vasconic substrate/Atlantic
superstrate" hypothesis, which he has been developing since the early
1990s, _is_ crank scholarship according to the standards of the field.
Of course it does happen from time to time that a theory once considered
cranky is vindicated and becomes accepted as mainstream scholarship, but
I just wonder if Vennemann's crazy hypothesis is crazy enough to qualify
as a hopeful case ;).
Piotr