Princeton Professor Joshua Katz Holds Linguistics Seminars

“What really is a sound?”

The question may seem simple, but after Joshua Katz, a classics professor from Princeton University, posed the inquiry to a jam-packed room of Exeter students and faculty last Monday, quiet momentarily spread throughout the crowd. Over the course of the following days, Katz would go on to prompt a multitude of similar, thought-provoking questions during his week-long introduction to historical and comparative linguistics.

The series, which took place over four lunchtime seminars, presented a “crash course” in the topic of linguistics, a subject not offered in most high schools. Katz began his workshop discussing the definition of linguistics, or the study of languages. From there, he examined the English language, the Indo-European language tree, Latin and the relation of all three subject matters to each other. Although the course outline was ambitious and extensive, Katz was able to explain linguistics in an instructional and amusing manner.

“Everyone who attended Professor Katz's lectures can attest to how wonderfully stimulating they were; Katz knew his audience well and made each talk as interactive as possible,” classics department chair Nicholas Unger, who invited Katz to give the seminars, said.

“The lectures were full every day, with the vast majority attending all four sessions, and I was gratified to see in the room both classicists and non-classicists, students and faculty, humanists and scientists, all sharing an interest in knowing how language, and by extension the human mind, works.”

Many members of the audience, no matter their familiarity with linguistics, found Katz’s presentation compelling.

“He has a rare gift for drawing on a profound depth of knowledge about language and the classics in a way that is entertaining without pandering to his audience.”

“He has a rare gift for drawing on a profound depth of knowledge about language and the classics in a way that is entertaining without pandering to his audience,” classics instructor Paul Langford said. “He challenges the audience to follow a sophisticated train of thought but knows how to draw on their existing knowledge to bring his listeners along.”

For lower Bliss Perry, who studies linguistics extensively as one of the co-heads of Exeter’s Linguistics Club, the lectures provided language-related theories and facts that were unfamiliar.

“The opportunity to learn from and interact with such an esteemed scholar like Dr. Katz was, for lack of better word, awesome,” Perry said.

While challenging even the most experienced linguists in the room, Katz still presented his lectures in a coherent, enlightening manner for those less familiar with the topic.

“I had intended to only go one day, but I kept going back because I could not bear to miss what he had to say,” upper Sam Millner said. “ I am still not an expert in linguistics, but Professor Katz left me with a good, broad knowledge of the history of language and some of its transformations throughout history.”

Part of the success was due to the series length. Unlike a standard one day seminar, Katz’s talks spanned the course of a whole week, allowing the subject matter to better sink into the minds of those in attendance.

“When you bring somebody to give a lecture, this is fine; but a lecture goes in one ear and out the other,” Katz said. “If you have a series, it is a little bit harder to get rid of. If you have a good series, then you can have a real impact.”

Since Katz was on campus for such a long period of time, he not only led the linguistics course but also visited classes, attended club meetings and partook in the various aspects of Exeter life.

“By immersing himself in the life of Exeter for a whole week, he enriched our lives immeasurably,” Unger said.

“Events like these give both instructors in language and in other disciplines the intellectual nourishment of contact with a brilliant scholar and they give students not only such contact but the chance to speak, both formally and informally, to someone who has devoted his life to intellectual pursuits in the humanities and who can provide them special insight into study at the college level and beyond.”

Others saw the week-long event as equally beneficial for the Exeter community. “It is important to have such occasions because it broadens the outlook of students on possible careers, and it is also just plain fun and imagination-stretching,” Pamela Parris, academic support counselor, said.

“We have a lively gang on this campus, I am delighted to see, that loves linguistics. Many others may have discovered the fun and fascination because of this opportunity.”

Perry agreed, noting that talks on minority subjects can open up fields of study that most high school students are not familiar with.

“Most of the people who attended the lecture probably knew beforehand what linguistics was, but I can guarantee that everyone came out more knowledgeable and more interested in the discipline than before,” Perry said.

“It is probably no coincidence that the Linguistics Society had three times as many members this week as ever before.”

Lower Miguel Perez, another co-head of the Linguistics Club, added, “We learned an incredible amount from professor Katz and it was a great experience for us.”

As informative as his introduction to linguistics was, Katz believed the week-long framework for lectures could be utilized in far more areas of study than just linguistics.

“Exeter could bring in a molecular biologist, astrophysicist, or Italian professor—anyone who can communicate meaningful information over the course of a few days,” Katz said.

So far, the notion of a week-long course has been nothing but a success, and if the Academy continues to offer such programs, students and faculty will have access to many unique opportunities for acquiring knowledge.