Linguistics

Babe, wake up, a new episode of Pirahã/Everett drama has dropped! In 2024 LangSciPress published a Festschrift for Daniel Everett, with an article by Geoff Pullum where he fiercely defended Everett's work and attacked Chomskyans, available here: https://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/434 (Daniel Everett on Pirahã syntax)

Now an American linguist who works in Brazil, Denny Moore, has published a response to the article: https://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/009832

Geoffrey K. Pullum has repeatedly made severe accusations that the linguist Daniel L. Everett suffered mistreatment in Brazil because his research on the Pirahã people and their language threatened Chomskyan theory. The present article presents a large trove of previously unavailable evidence (official Brazilian government documents, citizen information requests, interviews, etc.) that are directly relevant for assessing the claims that Everett was slandered and unjustly blocked from field research. The evidence disproves these claims, which have circulated widely in what I am designating as the Persecution Hoax. The evolution of Everett’s problems with Brazil’s National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples (FUNAI) is traced and found to be due to his own behavior and not to the action of Noam Chomsky or his affiliated linguists, nor to envious linguists in Brazil. Some variants of the Persecution Hoax myth, which are incompatible with the evidence and with each other, are described, along with comments. This myth is unfavorable for the development of indigenous linguistics in Brazil, as are Pullum’s suggestions for fieldwork. This is discussed briefly and alternative suggestions are offered.