Linguimericks—Book ९८ SpecGram Vol CXCIII, No 4 Contents Precise Quantification of Feline Comprehension of Human Language—Mia Au

Overheard* in the Linguistics Student Lounge

Chesterton “T͡ʃazː” Wilburfors Gilchrist, IV
Grad Student Union Steward, United Linguistics Workers**
Third-Year Grad Student, Dept. of Lexicology and Glottometrics
Devonshire-upon-Glencullen University, Southampton

All names have been changed to protect the guilty innocent.

Preterite: It occurs to me that when used literally, pointed and blunt are opposites, but when used metaphorically, they mean the same thing. It strikes me that the opposite of contronym ought to be contronym.
Keysmith: Ah, something to include in our next list, “terms that ought to be self-defining, but somehow aren’t”.
Verbigeration: In Nicaragua, the opposite of a contronym is a sandinistonym.

More to come...


* My Grandpapá—Chesterton Wilburfors Gilchrist, Jr., of “Reanalysis of Spanish by Naïve Linguists” fame—impressed upon me from an early age the potentially career-making value of eavesdropping serendipitous fieldwork. As I am not—yet!—the eavesdropper serendipitous fieldworker my Grandpapá is, and I don’t—yet!—have his ear for finding meaningfully meaningful meaning in overheard conversations, I will keep publishing the data of my informants until I, too, make an important contribution to linguistics!

** This Research is gratefully sponsored by the ULŋW Local #1729.

Linguimericks—Book ९८
Precise Quantification of Feline Comprehension of Human Language—Mia Au
SpecGram Vol CXCIII, No 4 Contents