I am a big fan of recursion!
If you’re not, then don’t cast aspersions,
Rather learn cons and pros
From a lim’rick that goes,
“I am a big fan of recursion...”
—α-Betty Abū Gida
Plato etc., were Greeky,
Their writings insightful but creaky;
They are all now long dead
But are still being read
By scholars both stodgy and geeky.
—Dikocrates of Garthens
An odd linguist with manner censorial
Told a fantastic, outlandish story you’ll
Prolly not credit—
But truly he said it—
Of a syntax that’s quite non-arboreal.
—Pumptilian Perniquity
Hapax Legomena
The problem with hapax legomena
Is, there’s such a humongous ton o’ ’em,
Like dingua and oclus
And nép and then ancus—
You’ll never get to the darn end o’ ’em.
—Claudius Terentianus Zipfus
I love this linguistics satirical:
Joking with matter empirical.
With my good SpecGram friends
The fun never ends
And just sometimes the jokes are hysterical.
—Rick Limmer
there was a descriptivist linguist
whose adviser said “don’t overthink this”
his thesis was data
to analyze later
so the department that robed him was english
—Andrew Lamont
That scholar from Randers, Jens Jespersen,
Was Danish, but became a world expert in
The grammar of English.
But the English got pricklish:
“He’s Danish: enough lingua-trespassin’!”
Repeated initials? My motto
Is don’t hide away in your grotto.
Jens Jespersen, he
Is a damn fine e.g.
And that’s why he used the name Otto.
—Jens Otto Harry Deakspersen
