Re: John Gumperz died (29-3-2013)

Athel Cornish-Bowden wrote:

On 2024-03-30 09:17:30 +0000, Ross Clark said:

Born Germany, 1922. Jewish. Left Germany 1930s, eventually reached the USA. Here his interests swung from chemistry to linguistics.
PhD, University of Michigan, 1954. Thesis on the dialect of a Swabian-German community in Michigan.
At University of California, Berkeley, from 1956.
What exactly was his field?
Sociolinguistics? (Crystal), but quite a different tradition from the Labovian variationists
specifically, Interactional Sociolinguistics? (Crystal)
Ethnography of Communication? (Crystal)...he was a close associate of Dell Hymes.
I haven't read much of Gumperz.
 Crystal mentions a "famous example", a case arising at Heathrow Airport.
Fortunately I don't have to retell it since it's here,

Only to subscribers.

                  if anyone can see the 2nd half of the NYT article,  pls post it here
                   After    “Gumperz was paying attention to the details of                              how language is used: your intonation, where you pause,                            the specific expressions that people from one culture or another might use.”
       __________________(from NPR)
"So if the same word — gravy — was said by the British women with a rising intonation — gravy? — that was understood as "Would you like some gravy?" The Indian and Pakistani women said it with a falling intonation — gravy. That came across as, "This is gravy; take it or leave it."
              he was really called in?  to help?           ----   Was this the only instance in human history that  a Linguist  was actually  useful?
          i thought a Linguist was useful only in movies                                         like Amy Adams  deciphering  Alien language.