Linguimericks—Book ९७ SpecGram Vol CXCIII, No 3 Contents Improving the Plural of Sheep—Trent Slater

Overheard* in the Linguistics Student Lounge

Chesterton “Chet” 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: Chomskyans, of course, analyse syntax as entirely separate from semantics, which is why they can produce long, complex sentences that mean nothing.
Keysmith: Unfortunately, this does not distinguish them from many other actors, academic or otherwise. I myself, belonging to the tribe of typologically-informed grammar writers, am able only to produce short, simplistic sentences that mean nothing.
Jargonisation: I’m very close to publicly admitting that academic writing is impenetrable not because it’s technical but because it’s easier to hide a bad idea behind drivel.

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 ९७
Improving the Plural of Sheep—Trent Slater
SpecGram Vol CXCIII, No 3 Contents