Just was thinking about Desmond Derbyshire this morning - especially regarding the history of how OVS languages were discovered. Des (my dear friend and member of my PhD committee), spent nearly 2 decades working among the Hixkaryana, after a successful career as a British accountant. Then, after finishing the New Testament in H, he decided, at age 55, to pursue a PhD in linguistics. Being from England and living near London, he decided to apply to UCL. In one of his first classes, a young junior lecturer was explaining why OVS languages could not exist - his theory explained their absence. Des approached him after class and said I speak an OVS language. The lecturer, Geoff Pullum, thought he would quickly show Des how though they might have OVS word order on occasion this could not be their basic order. In a short while Geoff concluded that Des knew what he was talking about. Geoff said I am wrong. He then wrote a few papers and edited a series of volumes with Des that in many respects contributed to the birth of linguistic typology. Des died a few years ago. I saw him last just after I accepted a job at Manchester. He was a briliant fieldworker, typologist, and administrator. Probably was a good accountant too.
Posted on: Mon, 31 Mar 2014 13:10:27 +0000
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