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  • Catching up

    From Ross Clark@21:1/5 to All on Wed Sep 11 22:07:03 2024
    5/9 Lewis Nkosi died (2010) [South African writer]
    6/9 First Puritans leave Plymouth on the _Mayflower_ (1620)
    - One of the first English-speaking settlements in North America.
    - Crystal explains the r-dropping of (eastern) New England speech from the fact that most of the settlers originated from London and other
    eastern areas. I wonder if there is local evidence of this?
    I was under the impression that evidence for the change first appears in
    London in the late 18th century, and had spread from there to other
    parts of England and to the colonies.

    7/9 I.A.Richards died (1979) [author, with C.K.Ogden, of _The Meaning of Meaning_ (1923), which is about semantics. Crystal also mentions an
    essay appended to this book by Bronislaw Malinowski, "The problem of
    meaning in primitive languages".

    8/9 International Literacy Day
    9/9 First reported case of a computer bug (1947)
    - A story (credited to "computer pioneer Grace Hopper") of how a moth became stuck in a relay of the Mark II computer at Harvard. "It was
    extracted and can still be seen - stuck into the logbook for the day..."
    But no, just a bit of Harvardian wit, since we have:
    "Mr Edison...had been up the two previous nights discovering 'a bug' in his phonograph -- an expression for solving a difficulty..."
    - Pall Mall Gazette, 1889

    10/9 Mary Wollstonecraft died (1797)
    - A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792)
    etc.
    11/9 Hannah Weiner died (1997)
    American poet (born 1928), associated with the "Language Poets" and their journal, L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E, which always came up in library
    catalogues when I was searching for plain old "Language", journal of the Linguistic Society of America. Another name is Charles Bernstein.
    Early work using naval flag signals..."idiosyncratic
    style...schizophrenic condition"...

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  • From guido wugi@21:1/5 to All on Wed Sep 11 17:15:06 2024
    Op 11-9-2024 om 12:07 schreef Ross Clark:
    5/9 Lewis Nkosi died (2010)  [South African writer]
    6/9   (...)

    7/9    I.A.Richards died (1979) [...]

    8/9   (...)
    9/9   (...)
    10/9    Mary Wollstonecraft died (1797)
        (...)
    11/9    Hannah Weiner died (1997)     (...)

    There's quite some dying going on in linguactivityland ;-)

    --
    guido wugi

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  • From Aidan Kehoe@21:1/5 to All on Wed Sep 11 17:37:18 2024
    Ar an t-aonú lá déag de mí Méan Fómhair, scríobh guido wugi:

    Op 11-9-2024 om 12:07 schreef Ross Clark:
    5/9 Lewis Nkosi died (2010)  [South African writer]
    6/9   (...)

    7/9    I.A.Richards died (1979) [...]

    8/9   (...)
    9/9   (...)
    10/9    Mary Wollstonecraft died (1797)
        (...)
    11/9    Hannah Weiner died (1997)     (...)

    There's quite some dying going on in linguactivityland ;-)

    There’s a lot of it about. Chomsky’s still alive at 95. Who’s interested in
    pre-writing his obituary?

    --
    ‘As I sat looking up at the Guinness ad, I could never figure out /
    How your man stayed up on the surfboard after fourteen pints of stout’
    (C. Moore)

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  • From Ross Clark@21:1/5 to guido wugi on Thu Sep 12 08:26:45 2024
    On 12/09/2024 3:15 a.m., guido wugi wrote:
    Op 11-9-2024 om 12:07 schreef Ross Clark:
    5/9 Lewis Nkosi died (2010)  [South African writer]
    6/9   (...)

    7/9    I.A.Richards died (1979) [...]

    8/9   (...)
    9/9   (...)
    10/9    Mary Wollstonecraft died (1797)
        (...)
    11/9    Hannah Weiner died (1997)     (...)

    There's quite some dying going on in linguactivityland ;-)

    I noticed, early in the year, that Crystal seemed to have more deathdays
    than birthdays in his book. It may be true, but I haven't bothered to
    count. I suppose you could argue that the stuff we remember people for
    tends to be closer to the former than the latter.

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