Mick O'Donnell And David Rose Positively Judging Jim Martin

Mick O'Donnell wrote to sys-func on 14/7/22 at 9:16:

Jim Martin has always impressed me as someone who, while respecting the whole, is willing to change core assumptions, when the needs of linguistic modeling require it. … what is important is that Jim has been (and continues to be) willing to throw out established ideas (even his own) if they don't fit new data. And anyone who is not willing to do similarly is kidding themselves if they think they are doing linguistic science.

and David Rose replied at 9:23:

At great personal risk

 

Blogger Comments:

Cf. Martin & Rose (2007: 62) on Martin:

His communion with Mandela, at such a distance in so many respects …

For an examination of Martin's theorising, see the review of Martin (1992) here.

For an example of Martin's "propriety", see his falsely accusing Ruqaiya Hasan of plagiarism at a symposium convened to celebrate her life's work after her death here.

Mick O'Donnell Misrepresenting The Content Of A Blog He Thinks No Longer Exists

Mick O'Donnell replied to David Kellogg on sys-func on 29/6/22 at 00:43:   

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate Chris's quotes from MAKH. it is not the positive presentation of the center, but rather the continual negative portrayal of the differing views. But not usually on sys-func, more typically on one of Chris's blogs, I think intended most for his friends. I see he has dropped http://thoughts-that-cross-my-mind.blogspot.com, a site that regularly snidely put down anyone he didn't like (I was sometimes there), but more importantly, he got negatively personal regarding people I care about, including unethical things (lifting stuff from a friend's Facebook, putting it on his blog, and when she asked him to take it down, he didn't, just posted on the blog her privately-sent request to remove it.)

This is not what MAKH was about: he was always fair, did not attack other views (with rare exceptions), but rather painted a picture of what he believed was best.

So, positive quotes, good, reasoned arguments, good, snide comments on semi-hidden blogspots, not so good.

Blogger Comments:

[1] Here O'Donnell misrepresents as "snidely putting down anyone he didn't like" the reasoned arguments on Thoughts That Cross My Mind that explain why the confidently expressed views of colleagues are in fact inconsistent with SFL Theory.

[2] To be clear, the blog is intended to help anyone who wants to improve their understanding of SFL Theory, especially those who are taught by colleagues who do not understand it. To date, the blog has been viewed 82,254 times, which is equivalent to about 100 views for every subscriber to Sysfling, the largest SFL email list.

[3] The question here is why O'Donnell raises the issue of a blog which he believes no longer exists. To be clear, it is because O'Donnell falsely believes that the blog no longer exists that he feels safe in being able to misrepresent its content. The incident that O'Donnell regards as "unethical" was the downloading of Fontaine's image from her university website so it could be placed next to her two posts on the blog. Fontaine wasn't singled out in this regard. All posts on the blog feature an image of the colleague whose views are examined. The image at the time was simply:

As regular viewers of the blog in the intervening 10 years can testify, no private request for the picture to be removed appears on the blog. It might be added that this incident "blew up" at the same time as I was being dishonestly vilified on the Sysfling list in the week of my mother's funeral:

David Rose Negatively Judging My 'Behaviour' and

Robin Fawcett Negatively Judging My SFL Blogs

[4] To be clear, currently there are 22 posts on the blog that examine O'Donnell's understanding of SFL Theory, all of which can be viewed here.

[5] Again, O'Donnell misleads by implying that the reasoned arguments that explain why colleagues' views are misunderstandings of theory are not reasoned arguments, but merely an "attack on other views" that do not "paint a picture" of what is consistent with theory.

[6] This is misleading. To be clear, the blog  Thoughts That Cross My Mind is not "semi-hidden", as demonstrated by the fact that it has been viewed more than 80,000 times. A link to the blog also appears at least once a week on the Sys-func list. O'Donnell's complaint here is that what he misrepresents as 'snide comments' are not as publicly available as they should be.

∞

Again, O'Donnell engages in the very act that he deplores in others: making personal attacks instead of reasoning on the basis of evidence.