The First Two Series of Ethnolinguistic Notes
The original series (labeled simply Ethnolinguistic Notes) was begun in 1976 and ended in 1977;
the second (called “new series”) was begun in 1978 and terminated in 1979. I began the original
series on ditto masters and distributed dittoed copies to colleagues. But dittos faded quickly,
and I learned to cut mimeograph stencils and finished the series with mimeographs. The earlier
dittoed Notes were also subsequently made into mimeographs by the Departmental secretarial staff.
I mimeographed most of the “new series”, but some odd pieces that--in retrospect--are best
considered to be part of the series were dittoed.
At present very few copies of these two series remain although I have salvaged at least one
copy of each Note. However, the University of Hawaii library has photocopies of both series.
After concluding each of these series, I wrote a book to present a better organized account
of the conclusions I’d reached. However, the book for the new series was never published.
For that reason, the contents of the new series are presumably to be regarded as less available.
I have made a slight attempt to remedy that by scanning and posting online some of those that
are only printed on one side (which makes scanning somewhat more feasible).
There are cases where a piece that wasn’t labeled as one of a series seemed to belong there
because of its content and manner of distribution. In the original series, there’s only one
such case, the “Addenda, corrigenda, etc.” between nos. 5 and 6. In the following list, I
give the date and the length in ditto and/or mimeo form.
I won’t try to say much more about these series. I hope the titles of the Notes, which I
give below, will prove to be somewhat self-explanatory.
Notes of the Original Series
1. The dotted line (Jan. 8, 1976) ditto 6pp, mimeo 4pp.
2. That a language and its description are different objects (Jan. 10, 1976) ditto 6pp, mimeo 3pp.
3. How things are said (Jan. 11, 1976) ditto 5pp, mimeo 3pp.
4. The scandal of translation (Jan. 15, 1976) ditto 4pp, mimeo 2pp.
5. What is there to be calqued? (Jan. 16, 1976) ditto 9pp. mimeo 5pp.
Addenda, corrigenda, etc. (Jan. 21, 1976) ditto 4pp, mimeo 2pp.
6. Meaning; the word and the sentence (Jan. 28, 1976) ditto 6pp, mimeo 3pp.
7. Word meaning (Feb. 6, 1976) ditto 11pp, mimeo 7pp.
8. A perspective on change (August 23, 1976) ditto 8pp, mimeo 4pp.
9. Introduction (August 30, 1976) ditto 6pp, mimeo 3pp.
10. Introduction (cont.): A possible science of language (Sept. 5, 1976) ditto 4pp, mimeo 2pp.
11. Fluency, or Zen and the art of speaking a language (Sept. 17, 1976) ditto 7pp, mimeo 4pp.
12. Function and selection (Dec. 23, 1976) ditto 11pp, mimeo 7pp.
13. More on the ostensible primary function of language (Jan. 9, 1977) ditto 6pp, mimeo 4pp.
14. More on the idiolect (Jan. 15, 1977) ditto 8pp, mimeo 4pp.
15. Le langage and la langue (Jan. 24, 1977) ditto 7pp, mimeo 4pp.
16. More on triteness (Mar. 8, 1977) mimeo 5pp.
17. Some background considerations on the question of the relation between language (langue) and (partitive) culture (Mar. 14, 1977) mimeo 5pp.
18. Thought and language (April 22, 1977) mimeo 4pp.
I tried to describe the main things I thought I had learned from the experience of writing
this first series of Notes in a book, An Essay on Language (Columbia SC: Hornbeam Press)
published in 1981. (I still like most of what I said in that book, but it was marred by
my effort to make sense of the claim linguists kept making that anything could be translated
into any language).
The “New Series”
The labeling of the pieces that I’m treating as belonging to the “new series” is more confused.
For one thing, I at one point began what I thought of as a special series that I labeled
“Notes on content form” (“content form” being a term and concept I got from the work of
Louis Hjelmslev). Also there are a couple pf pieces that were not attributed to any series.
It now seems to make sense to group them all together in their chronological order (as best
I can determine it).
I indicate the series to which each was originally attributed as follows: “New Series” = ELNns;
“Notes on content form” = NCF; No Assigned Series = NAS. (All page numbers refer to mimeographed
pages except as otherwise indicated).
Notes of the “new series”
ELNns 1. Is exoticism a phenomenon? (May 30, 1978) 4pp.
ELNns 2. The langue (June 9, 1978) 4pp. (Posted on the Web on 4 September 2006 at
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~grace/ELNns2.html)
ELNns 3. On the foundations of diachronic linguistics: What can go right? (June 21, 1978) 5pp.
ELNns 4. Linguistic relativity (August 4, 1978) 3pp.
NAS: On the role of language (natural or artificial) in epistemology (not dated or otherwise numbered--dittoed 3pp.)
NCF 1. The functions of syntactic structures (Dated only Fall 1978) dittoed 1p.
NCF 2. On meaning in lexical items (Fall 1978) dittoed 2pp.
ELNns 5. Intellectualized language (Oct. 15, 1978) 3pp. (Posted on the Web on 4 September 2006 at http://www2.hawaii.edu/~grace/ELNns5.html)
ELNns 6. Intellectualized language 2: writing (Oct. 21, 1978) 4pp. (Posted on the Web on 21 January 2006 at http://www2.hawaii.edu/~grace/ELNns6.html)
ELNns 7. Where does “the economy of linguistic description” come from? (Oct. 26, 1978) 4pp.
NCF 3. On the representation of reality by languages or What I meant by saying language “constructs realities” (Oct. 29, 1978) 4pp.
NCF 4. The etics and emics of reality: More on how languages “construct realities”. (Mar. 29, 1979) 5pp.
NCF 5. The linguistic sign (Apr. 3, 1979) 5pp.
ELNns 8. The speaker (May 18, 1979) 4pp.
ELNns 9. Speaking roughly (June 15, 1979) 4pp.
NAS: A note on language and perception (June 27, 1979) 3pp.
ELNns 10. Meaning and reference in natural language (Aug. 15, 1979) 5pp.
ELNns 11. Toward the study of ordinary language (Dec. 13, 1979) 7pp.
I tried to describe the main things I thought I had learned from the experience of writing
the Notes of this series in an unpublished book entitled Ordinary Language. I can’t remember
now what, if any, efforts I made to find a publisher (although I also don’t remember deciding
I didn’t want it published). Anyway, since it wasn’t published, I feel that the content of the
second series is less available than that of the first, and so have put a few online.
To go to other places in this website, click on one of the cells below
First put on the Web on 27 September 2006
© Copyright 2006 George Grace, Honolulu Hawaii. All Rights Reserved
