An Embarrassment of Entities

A Letter from the Editor-in-Chief

This issue of Speculative Grammarian is unlike any that has every come before and—if I have anything to do with it—unlike any that will come after. Our theme for this issue—dictated by our mighty yet beneficent sponsor—is Occam’s Razor.

This is a tad ironic, one might suppose, as the grammarian philosophy of the Modistae (i.e., the so-called speculative grammarians of the 13th and 14th centuries) is in direct opposition to the nominalism of William of Ockham. However:

First,

 it’s the 21st century—we should let bygones be bygones.

(ii)

 While the philosophical Modistae obviously took the name “speculative grammarians” as an homage to this publication, we are not them and they are not us.

三.

 It’s not like anyone can take Billy-Boy seriously when he can’t decide how to spell Oc{c,kh}am.

Δ)

 We’re going to stick it to them-there Occams by multiplying entities like nobody’s business. Are they unnecessary? Nay—they are wholly necessary!!

To that end we have not one, not two, but three Occam-themed (or at least vaguely Occam-adjacent) editorial letters to open this issue, and—at last count—about a billion razor-sharp, Occam-themed limericks, nearly as many Occamy adverts, some Occam news, an Occam puzzle, and a miscellany of gallimaufries of hodgepodges of farragos of assortments of other Occam-themed items. (That may seem like an unnecessary multiplication of meta-aggregations, but—trust me—you’ll be feeling it if you survive to the end of the issue.)

So—be speculative and multiply!

	The Occam Theory of Translation—A Letter from Translatological Editor Trent Slater
	SpecGram Vol CLXXXIII, No 2 Contents