-
Introduction
- Slavica Publishers
- Chapter
- Additional Information
Introduction It gives us great pleasure to present to you this collection of studies in South Slavic linguistics in honor of our friend, mentor, and colleague E. Wayles Browne. Wayles has played a special role in our professionallives . Throughout his career, he has been a subtle yet persistent force in bringing Slavic puzzles to the attention of the larger world of linguists and in defining the potential significance of these puzzles. For almost 50 years, Wayles has been a unique and irreplaceable intellectual resource for so many of us, working on a myriad of topics in a variety of languages and from a range of theoretical perspectives. The problem we faced in editing this volume was, therefore, one of deciding how to limit it, for if all on whom Wayles has had impact were invited to contribute, the task of producing a festschrift would have been endless. We decided, both to keep the volume manageable and in order to make the result cohesive, to limit the content to papers on South Slavic linguistics (fully expecting to see in the future volumes dedicated to Wayles but on Polish or Russian instead). We think the result makes for an engaging but diverse collection of linguistic studies. It is striking that some of Wayles's early papers in diverse areas of South Slavic and especially Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian linguistics, on topics as diverse as BCS accent ("Srpskohrvatski akcenat", 1965), clitics ("Srpskohrvatske enklitike i teorija transformacione gramatike", 1968, "On the problem of enclitic placement in Serbo-Croatian", 1974, "Serbo -Croatian enclitics for English-speaking learners", 1975), definiteness ("Noun phrase definiteness in relatives and questions: Evidence from Macedonian", 1970), coordination ("On conjoined questions and conjoined relative clauses in English and Serbo-Croatian", 1971, "Conjoined questions and conjoined relative clauses in Serbo-Croatian", 1973), and of course wh-movement ("Two wh-fronting rules in SerboCroatian ", 1976), have served to define research programs for more than one generation of Slavic linguists. Indeed, in this very volume Steven Franks, Vrinda Chidambaram, and Brian Joseph, eds. A Linguist's Linguist: Studies in South Slavic Linguistics in Honor of E. Wayles Browne. Bloomington, IN: Siavica, l B . 2 STEVEN FRANKS, VRI NDA CHIDAMBARAM, AND BRIAN JOSEPH you will read some studies whose conceptual origins can be found in Wayles's insightful observations about South Slavic languages. Unlike most collections of articles, which have introductions telling potential buyers about the papers contained therein, we leave that particular task, as they say, to the reader. Instead, we would like to tell you about the person these papers honor. Each of us has something to say about how Wayles has influenced our lives. We have also collected pithy reminiscences from a number of Wayles's friends and colleagues . These are reproduced below, very slightly edited. Steven Franks first came to know about Wayles while still an undergraduate : "Having spent an eye-opening semester in Soviet Leningrad, I returned to Princeton with one question for my advisor Charlie Townsend : 'Don't they have cases anywhere warmer than Russia?' I was immediately sent in the direction both of BCS and of Wayles. Later, applying for a Fulbright to study in Croatia, I wrote Wayles for advice. He wrote back to me-a naive and unfamiliar undergraduate-a lengthy letter spelling out in great detail a research problem I could use for my Fulbright. I got it and took the opportunity to spend a year at Wayles's old stomping ground, the Zavod za lingvistiku in Zagreb. There I was continually reminded of Wayles's unique expertise and rare intelligence. But I think more impressive was his generosity with ideas, his unstinting readiness to share, advise, and support. I subsequently went to Cornell, to study with him and with his colleague at the time, Len Babby, and eventually completed a dissertation under Wayles's supervision. He help me to define a protocol for production, taught me to approach every question-but especially whatever I was most sure of-with a critical eye, and instilled in me a regimen I apply to this day with my own doctoral students. Since that time, I have continually gone to Wayles with questions both linguistic and logistic, with respect to ventures too plentiful to enumerate. The editing of this volume in his honor is one small offering of thanks for all the help Wayles has given me over the years and for all that he has done to advance Slavic linguistics." Vrinda Chidambaram first met Wayles while doing her undergraduate...