Re: Stacking up on standard works

At 2:35:38 AM on Tuesday, April 3, 2012, Tavi wrote:

> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott"
> <bm.brian@...> wrote:

>> We all have to rely in part on authorities: no one can
>> know everything. Weighing authorities is a rather
>> fundamental intellectual skill.

>> I do not have on hand the evidence or the knowledge of
>> Basque historical phonology to make an independent
>> judgement, so I must in the first instance rely on expert
>> opinion. Larry Trask was a recognized authority on
>> Basque, and I've plenty of positive direct experience
>> with the quality of his argumentation in an assorment of
>> books and on-line forums. I have plenty of negative
>> direct experience with the quality of your argumentation.
>> In this case it's not at all difficult to decide whose
>> conclusion is more likely to be correct, never mind the
>> further evidence of the very late attestation of Basque
>> <mintz>.

> In other words, you've got a *biased* opinion.

An informed opinion. And yes, the information available to
me results in my having a bias in favor of his views and
against yours. This is because I have a functioning brain.

> Although perhaps you're unaware of this, many of Trask's
> ideas aren't actually original but adapted from other
> people, mainly Koldo Mitxelena, the pioneer of modern
> Vascology. That is, Trask also relied upon others'
> authority.

As filtered through his own understanding, yes; of course.
That's how scholarship works.

> Having read his magna opus "The History of Basque", I can
> say that while he was a good Vascologist, he was also a
> poor comparative linguist.

<splork!!> Boy, do *you* need to get out more! That's one
of the funniest things I've read all year.

> Apparently, he had an agenda which not only made him
> negate any possibilty of genetic relationships between
> Basque and other languages (e.g. Iberian), but also he
> strongly minimized the influence of Basque in its
> neighbouring Romance languages, specially Spanish.

You confuse 'having an agenda' with 'being persuaded by the
evidence'. (By the way, one can be honestly persuaded by
the evidence and still mistaken, even without having an
agenda.)

I have seen quite a few of his refutations of alleged
extra-Basque connections; they are extremely persuasive. Of
course, those making the connections often made it rather
easy for him by what might politely be called their cavalier
treatment of the data.

Brian