COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

In the City of New York

Department of Romance Philology

 

October 3, 1958

 

Dear Mr. Hardin:

 

            I don’t know when I have ever read a more pointed or better written indictment of the school of so-called “linguistic science” than appears in your current editorial. You may or may not know it, but I, as an old-line philologist, have been carrying on the battle against the encroachments of the structuralists for the last thirty years; often, it almost seemed, single-handed. If you are acquainted with the Modern Language Journal and have access to its files, I can give you a very long list of references to articles and book reviews I have written on the subject. I shall be glad to send you some reprints, if you care to read them: for others, I can give you the references.

 

What I should be interested in knowing is what impelled you to write your editorial. Remember that I have never had the pleasure of meeting you, and know nothing about your background, save that you publish the International Language Review. Yet you write with an assurance and a competence that indicate that you have delved pretty deeply into the field of general linguistics. Cold you be a fellow-professor in disguise?

 

            Next, I should like to ask you what you propose to do with your editorial. It is far too interesting to the linguistic world to be read only by the readers of your Review. I should like to see it read by every member of the Linguistic Society of America, the Modern Language Association of America and the various Associations of Language Teachers. This is probably too ambitious a project, involving some 20,000 pieces of mail, but the least that could be done would be to send a copy