Another Follow-Up on Athens

Following Norbert's example, I would like to talk a little bit about my experience at the Athens workshop. As you might recall, I was rather sceptical after reading the vision statements that much good would come out of all of this. A week later, my evaluation is more nuanced.

First of all, let me say that I can't think of any other syntax conference I've been to that has been that much fun. The format of brief panel presentations followed by one hour discussions worked incredibly well, much to my own surprise, and the range of topics that were touched on was very diverse (Gillian has a great summary on her blog). That said, I can't shake the feeling that most of the issues people worried about are ultimately small potatoes and that nobody was inclined to really question the foundations of the field, not even as a thought experiment to demonstrate their usefulness. I suppose that puts me in what Gillian calls the Grumpy camp, though I prefer to think of it as a healthy predilection for permanent improvement through criticism. Anyways, let's talk a bit about why all the nice discussions won't bring about any of the changes the field needs, even those everybody in Athens agreed on.