May 2012アーカイブ

During my stay in Berkeley I was fortunate enough to be the houseguest of Robin, Susan Ervin-Tripp, and Chuck Fillmore. It was a gracious experience to spend time together with these exceptional personalities and minds. Susan served as IPrA President for six years prior to my appointment and contributed to IPrA's growth. Chuck was delighted that our new president is Jan-Ola, his former graduate student. I realize that our secretary general Jef Verschueren was also a graduate student at UC Berkeley. Robin, Susan and Chuck must be acknowledged for having laid the foundation of IPrA during the time they were teaching. To me, they are the forefather and mothers of our IPrA.

On May 4, 2012, RobinFest, a conference honoring Robin Lakoff's retirement, was held at Berkeley, California. Deborah Tannen and Mary Bucholtz, former students of Robin, organized this wonderful event. Participants expressed great admiration for Robin, whose thoughts and encouragement laid the ground for many of their careers. Her son Andrew Lakoff, for whom the monumental book Language and Woman's Place was dedicated, made a charming speech. He quoted the book's first page, in which he is referenced, "'For Andy whose generation will, I hope, have transcended these issues by the time he can read this book. 'I was five years old, then.''' It was in this moment that I believe all of the participants, including myself, realized that doing pragmatics (in this case, studies on woman's language) enables us to change the world.

George Lakoff also came to celebrate the event and made a warm speech. He mentioned that Robin, when studying classic Latin as an undergraduate, was already thinking 'pragmatics' when there was no word for it. Additionally, he also said that both of the authors of textbooks on pragmatics are students of Robin--that is, Stephen Levinson and Georgia Green. This remark reminded us that it was Robin's inspiration that opened the door for us to follow her and flourish in the field of pragmatics.