SpecGram Vol CLXV, No 4 Contents Letters to the Editor

Διπλοῦν Ὁρῶσιν Οἱ Μαθόντες Γράμματα

A Letter from the Managing Editor

Fall1 is in the air. Just as glorious color bursts forth outside our office windows, so do new ideas explode in the brains of our contributors.

The astute2 reader will have noticed the recrudescence3 of the excellent4 series, “Things You Didn’t Know You Didn’t Know” over the last several issues. This is of course a cause for celebration.5 In addition to another fine installment of that series, this number contains some truly6 important articles, with an earth-shattering7 first look into a SpecGram time capsule, the momentous birth of a new writing system, and several other, lesser,8 but still supremely9 worthy items.

Unfortunately, there is no article in this issue from Claude Searsplainpockets. The erstwhile anthropological linguist has been confined to Arkham Asylum after slapping a policeman in the face with a fat herring.10 In spite of this sad development, we remain confident that you will love this edition as much as its predecessors.11

Alice Gaby, 2011, “Reciprocal-marked and marked reciprocal events in Kuuk Thaayorre”, in Reciprocals and Semantic Typology, John Benjamins.

Chiasmus of the Month
October 2012



1 ˙ǝɹǝɥdsıɯǝH uɹǝɥʇnoS ǝɥʇ uı spuǝıɹɟ ɹno ɹoɟ ‘ƃuıɹds ɹO

2 The adjective astute, as usual in this context, means “moderately awake”.

3 Look it up, lazybones!

4 Though disheartening.i

5 Unless you are a lackluster student, living in fearii of seeing your own “pearl of wisdom” appear in these hallowediii pages.

6 ±3.2%iv

7 Not literally. At least not literally literally.v

8 Just a little bit lesser. Not like socio-level lesser.vi

9 Like, Diana Ross–supremely.

10 Repeatedly.

11 We certainly do.vii


i We have recently received a new Voetnoot Footnotator from IKEA. It makes footnoting easier than ever.a I have to admit that I love it beyond words.b

ii Quite rightly.

iii And/or hollowed. Hard to tell.c

iv p < 0.002 d

v Is it not sad that literally is losing its literal meaning? At least we have reduplicative emphasis!e

vi No offense.f

vii Almost as much as I love the Voetnoot.i, f, *, g


a Can you tell?

b Can you tell?*

c There are reports of metaphorical termites infesting our rhetoric.

d y = β0 + β1*x + ε 

e Y’know, for emphasis emphasis.

f Just sayin’.

g Man, that thing is awesome.§


* Ibid.

Though the entire journal did recently pass an oratorial inspection.

λP[λQ[∼∃x[P(x)∧Q(x)]]].

§ Truly6 awesome.


Beyond words.


And don’t you even think about mentioning “foot and note disease.” , , ,


It isn’t nice.

It isn’t true.

It would make me angry.

I know where you live.

Letters to the Editor
SpecGram Vol CLXV, No 4 Contents