Altered Mental State vs. "Style of Discourse:" Reply to Samarin.

Goodman, Felicitas D.

This article provides Professor William Samarin's, a sociologist, reactions to an article which was published in a journal three years ago. The main thrust of Samarin's present arguments may be summarized as follows, a sociolinguistic and religious explanation of glossolalia is fully sufficient and does not necessitate, even forbids any psychological or neuropsychological inquiry; one cannot claim to have undertaken any cross-cultural study since it was concerned only with Pentecostals who spoke related languages and the specific identical features in the glossolalia of various groups constitute simply a "style of discourse." Explaining a behavior, or any phenomenon for that matter, involves showing that, in philosophical terms, the consequent is potentially present in the antecedent. No explanation can be considered complete unless it accounts for all observed consequents. Samarin mentions in a footnote to an article that some glossolalia syllables get extra stress and volume.

SAMARIN, William; SOCIOLINGUISTICS; SPEAKING in tongues; NEUROPSYCHOLOGY; PENTECOSTALS; CROSS-cultural studies; DISCOURSE analysis

Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 1972, Vol 11, Issue 3, p297

0021-8294

Academic Journal

10.2307/1384557