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SpecGram >> Vol CLXXXIX, No 4 >> Little Known Facts About Famous LinguistsThe SpecGram Paparazzi Elves™

Ask Grammaticality Brown SpecGram Vol CLXXXIX, No 4 Contents Tileni Revisited—Tom Patterson

Little Known Facts About Famous Linguists

The SpecGram Paparazzi Elves™

Syntactico-semantics; historical morphophonology; the neurolinguistics of third language derivational morpheme retrieval and online activationthe names of the subdisciplines of linguistics trip from our tongues as easily as the Eton-educated, scholarship-winning, soon-to-be undergraduate Oxford student of Greats rattles off his amabo, amabas, amabat while frolicking his carefree way down Broad Street on the first sunlit day of the new academic year.

Yes, linguistics and its myriad of subdisciplines are our familiar friends: we know them, we love them, we study them, we teach them. But what do we know of linguists, the flesh-and-blood women and men who give life and breath to these ologies of language science. Their names may be familiar of course; but their lives, their loves, their favorite pair of socks, and what they had for breakfastthese often remain hidden mysteries lurking in the cool grey water beneath a never-to-be-upturned stone.

With this in mind, SpecGram has recently undertaken to research the comings and goings of well-known linguists. Our aim, ambition and aspiration was to dress the back-cover-blurb bones of these abstract names with the blood-red everyday flesh incidental of quotidian normality. We met with success and are proud to present our list of Little Known Facts About Famous Linguists, at least one of which is actually true.

  • Mark C. Baker Noam-Chomsky-studied with and has several-books-written.

  • Marcus Zuerius van Boxhorn was the original family man.

  • William Caxton simply hates photocopying.

  • When R.M.W. Dixon’s pet hamster died, he knew exactly what subfamily of Rodentia he’d replace it with.

  • Jean Berko Gleason contributed to first language acquisition a highly significant idea in the 1950s. She then went on to contribute yet more significant first language acquisition ______.

  • Zellig Harris’s doctoral supervision of Noam was transformational.

  • Stephen D. Krashen likes reading.

  • That shifty William Labov been researched variation in rhoticity.

  • Stephen C. Levinson and Penelope Brown are extremely polite to each other.

  • Rochelle Lieber’s favourite drink is a pot of coffee.

  • Pāṇini, the 4th century BCE ancient Sanskrit grammarian, not only undertook ground-breaking work in what is now called morphology, but also ran a highly successful Italian-style sandwich shop.

  • Paul Passy thought doing headstands might help with his mirror-writing problem.

  • W.V.O. Quine once ran out of cigarettes as he gave a guy his last one.

  • John Ross likes vacationing on archipelagos (but never wants to leave).

  • When the young Bertrand Russell was taken for his first haircut by mater (aka Viscountess Amberley), the barber suggested that he should shave himself but then proceeded to give him a haircut anyway.

  • Lucien Tesnière found it very hard to say goodbye to his mother’s mother.

  • When J.R.R. Tolkien served as an officer in the First World War, he commanded a platoon of conscripts.

  • Benjamin Lee Whorf misunderstood when the Hopi told him that he was welcome to come back anytime. When he finally did return, they were lost for words.



© MCMLXXXVIII — MMXXV Speculative Grammarian



© MCMLXXXVIII — MMXXV Speculative Grammarian
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