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Teeter's law

Teeter's law is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Teeter's law rather than just read about it. In short: Teeter's law is a wry observation about the biases of historical linguists, explaining how different investigators can arrive at radically divergent conceptions of the proto-language of a family: The language of the family you know best always turns out to be the most archaic. Although the law is named after the Americanist linguist Karl Teeter, it apparently does not appear in any of Teeter's works.

Key takeaways

  • Teeter's law belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
  • Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
  • Connect Teeter's law to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
  • Reproduce the core statement of Teeter's law from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Teeter's law is a wry observation about the biases of historical linguists, explaining how different investigators can arrive at radically divergent conceptions of the proto-language of a family:

The language of the family you know best always turns out to be the most archaic. Although the law is named after the Americanist linguist Karl Teeter, it apparently does not appear in any of Teeter's works. It is customarily quoted from a 1976 review by the Indo-European linguist Calvert Watkins of Paul Friedrich's Proto-Indo-European syntax: the order of meaningful elements. Watkins argued that Friedrich, after criticizing other scholars for overemphasizing particular branches of the family, had based his reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European syntax entirely on Homeric Greek.

See also Blind men and an elephant

References

Works cited Hock, Hans Henrich (2007), "Privileged Languages and Others in the History of Historical-Comparative Linguistics", in Kibbee, Douglas A. (ed.), History of Linguistics 2005: Selected Papers from the Tenth International Conference on the History of the Language Sciences, John Benjamins, pp. 274–287, ISBN 978-90-272-4603-5. Lightfoot, David W. (1979), Principles of Diachronic Syntax, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-29350-1. Watkins, Calvert (1976), "Towards Proto-Indo-European syntax: problems and pseudo-problems", in Steever, Sanford B.; Walker, Carol A.; Mufwene, Salikoko S. (eds.), Papers from the Parasession on Diachronic Syntax, Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society, pp. 305–326.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Teeter's law

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Teeter's law claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Teeter's law before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Teeter's law ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Teeter's law

In research
Teeter's law appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry
Engineering practice reuses Teeter's law in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom
Teeter's law is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1976 neologisms, Adages, Eponymous rules, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life
Look for Teeter's law outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.
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How to study Teeter's law in 20 minutes

  1. Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
  2. Close the page and write down what Teeter's law means in your own words.
  3. Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
  4. Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
  5. Explain Teeter's law out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Teeter's law in simple terms?

Teeter's law is a wry observation about the biases of historical linguists, explaining how different investigators can arrive at radically divergent conceptions of the proto-language of a family: The language of the family you know best always turns out to be the most archaic. Although the law is n…

Why does Teeter's law matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Teeter's law?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Teeter's law.

Tags

  • 1976 neologisms
  • Adages
  • Eponymous rules
  • Historical linguistics
  • Historical linguistics stubs

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