The mainstreaming of the linguistic sciences: a comparison of global approaches and a call to action for linguists

Abstract

For awhile now, I’ve been working on a site that deals with issues related to Japan, Japanology, and the Japanese language. What originally started as a kind of “Japan Fan” site, assisting and entertaining people who study Japanese, enjoy “things Japanese,” have lived in Japan, or hope to live in Japan, took on new meaning for me when I started studying linguistics. I realized that I was doing a disservice to my visitors, especially those who are studying the Japanese language, if I don’t provide a scientific view of the Japanese language that is geared to the mainstream and literary student of Japanese. In fact, the mainstreaming of the linguistics discipline for literature and foreign language-based students of language generally has become a very important issue and goal for me.