Talk:Michael Silverstein

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Sorry this is very incomplete. It's late and I'm tired. This guy is important, I promise.

Terminological complexity and technical difficulty. Try pretentiousness and willing obfuscation. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 137.158.153.203 (talk) 09:41, 15 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

It would be really awesome if someone who knew more about Silverstein could contribute; my knowledge of him is shallow(er than I'd like it to be). Superabo 09:15, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]


i'm taking a semiotics class by him, he's a big deal but hasn't published many books. it seems like his contributions have been disseminated largely by his students, since he hasn't published many books.


I can only stress what others say. He's on my dissertation committee. He's most famous among linguists for his 1976 article about feature asymmetries in languages -- it's even called the "Silverstein hierarchy" (although he himself does not believe it to be one but many hierarchies). Anyways, I'll add stuff about that latter when I get the chance. trwier 20 Feb 2007


I think this guy is only a big deal at the University of Chicago (Big surprise! Somewhat of a cloistered academic network at that school). I've studied semiotics and literary theory for years and I've seldom come across references to his work, scattered footnotes here and there. He certainly isn't a prominent part of the larger ongoing discourse in critical theory of language/literature/culture. I think this article may give the reader the wrong impression, calling him "preeminent"75.73.51.221 (talk) 04:40, 5 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I assure you his is big outside of the university of chicago - but he probably isn't well known outside of Linguistic Anthropology circles. It is true he is not a big publisher but a recent book I read referred to him as the "johnny appleseed of linguistic anthropology". His few works and his students have had a disproportionate impact on the field.·Maunus·ƛ· 12:06, 5 April 2011 (UTC

Thanks for the assurance...not sure how to verify an assurance. "Johnny Appleseed" in that recent book seems mythic. I wish we were able to know more - perhaps if he published more or was referenced more often we would know just how eminent he actually was. That's the tough thing about academic work, you need to publish your research in addition to teaching graduate students. An odd custom, but seemingly ubiquitous!(talk)

We'll his articles are very highly cited. Especially the 1977 article where he introduced metalinguistic awareness and metapragmatics.·ʍaunus·snunɐw· 14:36, 15 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

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