Abstract:

One hundred years after the birth of our Master and fourteen years after his sudden death, in the peak of his research activity, the scholarly world of linguistics is, both essentially and technically, very different from, and probably less attractive than the one he knew and worked in. Still, not one of the peculiarities of modern scholarship was unheralded or indeed unknown when he was still alive. We, his disciples, frequently wonder, sadly, as to what would his reaction and opinion have been: very probably dry and sarcastic, delivered with a quizzical smile, but never egocentric er self-involving. We would dearly like to have his comments on many new grammatically baffling loci in Coptic, Egyptian, Amharic, Neo-Aramaic — he would have commented on those with relish, a trenchant lucidity and, again, a wonderful humility in face of language and the text: “trust the text, not your own ideas and bias” was ever his guiding principle. This, the absence of overweening confidence in his ability of fathom the deeps of linguistic systems: Polotsky was a scholar of great humility in the presence of linguistic intricacy.

Notes:

After Polotsky: Proceedings of the Colloquium, Bad Honnef, September 2005.