ENOUGH ALREADY (!) Re: De-Inflection Software?

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Tue Sep 24 08:37:51 EDT 2002


I have received a message from one of the principals in the argument over
"De-Inflection Software" informing me that he has unsubscribed from
B-Greek, apparently as a consequence of my message to the list yesterday
closing the thread. Although I'm a bit hesitant to do so, I think it just
may be useful to share with the list the rationale for the decision to
close the thread. If there are comments or observations regarding it, I
would appreciate that you address them to me OFF-LIST rather than directly
in this forum.

I am sorry that the person concerned felt compelled to unsubscribe. I think
it was one of the participants in the discussion who remarked that the
thread had generated more heat than light, and after a couple more days it
was an unavoidable observation that tempers were frayed, a sense of
frustration being expressed in increasing measure, but most significant,
nothing new was being stated in the messages. Although that may be
disputed, but it seems to me that on two occasions  the proponent sketched
out carefully and about as clearly as possible the sort of program the
creation of which he was urging and that he stated his point that such a
program would not rely upon any previously-created programs or data. And
despite the details offered by Dale Wheeler and James Tauber supporting, in
their view, the questionability of the proposed project, I don't think that
the opposing "side" of the argument was winning any more supporters from
the "uncommitted" than the proponents' "side" of the argument was winning.
We can't know, partly because, for whatever reason, they weren't joining in
the discussion/debate, partly because the discussion/debate itself had
bogged down to a sort of "shouting match" of the sort wherein pre-teen kids
cry out "'Tis so!" and "No, 'tisn't!" back and forth at each other. That is
the sort of thing that happens from time to time on our list as on others,
and when the list-managers have concluded that matters have reached this
stage, we have simply closed the thread--at least for the time being--, as
we did in this instance. I don't doubt that the matter will come up again,
because it is a recurrent issue, one that many list-members are aware of
and have strong views upon. It's not just a question of computer software
to ease the burden of analysis of morphological formations, but of
hard-copy parsing guides and interlinear translations as well; I myself
have faced-off regarding the pedagogical worth of parsing guides in private
correspondence with Timothy Friberg. There is no danger (or hope, I think)
that some ultimate consensus will be reached on this issue.

What did disturb me--and I suspect that it disturbed others as well--was
the increasingly bitter tone of the exchanges, the venting of frustrated
anger as well as the resort to sarcastic comments regarding the obtuseness
and blindness of those arguing for the other side of the issue. That, even
more than the clear indication that the discussion/debate had clearly
reached a stalemate, was the reason why I called a halt to the discussion.

>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Carl W. Conrad [mailto:cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu]
>> Sent: Monday, September 23, 2002 4:43 PM
>> To: Biblical Greek
>> Subject: [b-greek] ENOUGH ALREADY (!) Re: De-Inflection Software?
>>
>> As was remarked already two days ago (at least), this thread has come
>to
>> generate more heat than light. What I have observed increasingly is
>> strident tones and ironic comments that have certainly added nothing
>to
>> the
>> comity of list-discussions. I cannot imagine that anything more that
>is
>> genuinely illuminating is likely to be said or written about this
>issue at
>> this time. So let's call a halt to it, please.

-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
Most months:: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu OR cwconrad at ioa.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/



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