Talk:Jože Toporišič

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Jože Toporišič is the leading Slovenian linguist. This is a simple fact. He is the sole author of the newest Slovenian Grammar and the main author of the newest reference book of proper Slovenian orthography (Slovenski pravopis). Slovenian is a regulated language so this has great impact. --Eleassar my talk 10:56, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

Sorry, but when it comes to eminently subjective, evaluative statements about people's significance, there is no such thing as a "simple fact", I'm afraid. Fut.Perf. ☼ 11:09, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

OK, I have rephrased it. --Eleassar my talk 11:16, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

It's still unsourced though. When I google for linguistics publications on Slovenian, I can easily find people who seem to have published just as much and get cited just as much or more than him. Not that I know the specific field, but I'd ask you to be cautious: just because you as a lay reader have heard his name and not others doesn't tell us much about his objective role in the field. Fut.Perf. ☼ 11:23, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

Well, if he is the main or the sole author of all the books that regulate Slovenian language and the president of the SASA commission on Slovenian ortography, that tells us something, doesn't it? Some young people in our country almost think he invented Slovenian language! I'm sorry I don't have sources in English to back up my claims at my hand so you may remove them from the article. If someone speaks Slovenian, I recommend him to visit http://www.rtvslo.si/odprtikop/vecerni_gost/joze-toporisic/ --Eleassar my talk 11:38, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

Hehe. "Invented Slovenian", did he? :) It reminds me of a certain other linguist (who will remain unnamed here, let's just call him "X") who had a few leading positions in another eastern European country (let's just call it Psorokostanistan for now). He had his students refer to him, when quoting him in their term papers, with terms such as "the Psorokostanistanian linguist par excellence, X." Such a term paper got an "excellent" mark and was distributed to students as a model for imitation... -- Not that I'd want to suggest this is a similar case, this guy could of course still be the greatest linguist on earth, we just don't know. Fut.Perf. ☼ 11:52, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

You made me laugh :) A lot of people criticise prof. Toporišič actually but a lot of them praise him too. This is inevitable, I suppose. --Eleassar my talk 12:00, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

Made a new proposal for a re-wording, hope this will find your approval. I think characterising his grammar as "influential" is not too much of OR, it really does seem to be. Fut.Perf. ☼ 12:22, 30 September 2007 (UTC)
The article seems much better now. Thanks for your help. --Eleassar my talk 12:25, 30 September 2007 (UTC)