Speculative Grammarian Podcast

Review of “Mathematical Games, Puzzles, and Fallacies” by Sydney Lamb; by Henry Morgan; From Volume I, Number 4 of Gaugauh Kamadugha, The Journal of the Linguistic Society of South-Central New Caledonia, August 1991 — Review Article: Lamb, Sydney. 1977. Mathematical Games, Puzzles, and Fallacies. New York: Arco Publishing Company, Inc. 71 pp. (Read by Keith Slater.)

The Linguist’s Self-Definer for Humanistic Greek and Latin Lingo; by R.L. Rankin; From Lingua Pranca, June 1978 — vowol harmono / ümlaut / dithsimilation / to back formate / metasethis ... (Read by Trey Jones.)

Review of Zhang, Jiannan, “The Relationships between Processes and Participants in Chinese: A Cognitive Approach”; by Jan Vanderkeller; From Volume I, Number 3, of Better Words and Morphemes, The Journal of the Linguistic Society of South-Central New Caledonia, May 1991 — Dr. Zhang seems to be laboring under a strange delusion. To wit, as far as I can tell, he thinks that there are only 300 verbs in Chinese. Where he got this idea, I have no idea, since most people know that there are a total of 307 verbs in Chinese. Even more strangely, he has included in his sample two verbs, kan ‘look at, read’ and chi ‘eat’, which are not even really Chinese, but rather pseudo-Chinese (see Pengyou 1988 for discussion). This means that he includes only 298 of the actual 307 verbs of Chinese in his discussion. (Read by Keith Slater.)

Review of Van Der Fort’s Guide to Field Linguistics; by Webley Louis Severson III; From Volume CLXI, Number 3, of Speculative Grammarian, April 2011 — Van Der Fort’s Guide to Field Linguistics by J. S. S. van der Fort / Rating: ƛƛƛƛ / ƛƛƛƛ (Underlyingly Good) (Read by Joey Whitford.)

Review Article: Carmichael, James Grant III. The Structure of Bee Communication.; by James Grant Carmichael III; From Volume I, Number 2, of World of Language, The Journal of the Linguistic Society of South-Central New Caledonia, February 1991 — Truly a breath of fresh air in the recently-stale field of animal communication studies, Carmichael’s book is a pure delight from page one. Apart from his lucidly clear prose and strikingly funny sense of humor, this highly respected author exhibits characteristically lucid analysis and clear formulations of his obviously profound thoughts. Space allows us here to touch on only a few of the books’ many engaging features. (Read by Keith Slater.)

Reply to Kathman (Letter to the Editor); by William D. Pinkerton-Umlaut; From Volume XVI, Number 2, of Psammeticus Quarterly, February 1989 — Attn: Editors / I have never been so insulted as when I read Dave Kathman’s thoroughly unfounded attack on my work and character. I shall not even deign to defend my theories—any unbiased reader of my book will certainly see that they are well-founded and insightful. However, I must protest K’s depiction of my work as full of savage “ad hominem attacks”—but that’s the sort of unfounded charge you can expect from a self-important half-wit like K. An ego the size of his, when paired with a brain the size of a walnut, will naturally belittle that which it could never hope to understand. (Read by Trey Jones.)

Review of Pinkerton-Umlaut’s Back to Basics: The Real Truth About Language; by Dave Kathman; From Volume XVI, Number 1, of Psammeticus Quarterly, November 1988 — William D. Pinkerton-Umlaut: Back to Basics: The Real Truth About Language. Adelaide, Australia: Zyx Press, 1988. 547 pp. (Read by Trey Jones.)

Grey Duck or Goose?—Mapping variation in a children’s game in Minnesota; by Sven Slater and Ollie Bickford; From Volume CLXIII, Number 4, of Speculative Grammarian, January 2012 — Research Question / Last year, a new kid named Tyler P. joined our fourth grade class. Tyler was from Illinois or some other southern state, and she told us that down there kids play “duck, duck, goose,” instead of “duck, duck, grey duck” like we do here in Minnesota. We thought this was strange, even for the South, but then we talked about it and discovered that even some Minnesota kids in our own class had heard this at their grandmas’ houses. Our teacher, Mr. Olson, said we could study isoglosses to learn about that, so we decided to do that for this year’s science fair. (Read by Jesse Slater and Elizabeth Slater.)

Language Made Difficult, Vol. XXII — The SpecGram LingNerds are joined yet again by Sheri Wells-Jensen. After some Lies, Damned Lies, and Linguistics, they discuss whether linguists make grammaticality judgements like "normal people", and confess more of their prescriptive tendencies.

Hymns for the Reverent Linguist; from The Linguistick Hymnary (1845); From Volume CLXVI, Number 1, of Speculative Grammarian, November 2012. — Great is Thy Faithfulness; Typology, Typology; The Linguist’s One Foundation; Joy to the Word. (Performed by Jay and the Fictones.)

Language Made Difficult, Vol. XXI — The SpecGram LingNerds are joined by returning guest Sheri Wells-Jensen for Lies, Damned Lies, and Linguistics, and she sticks around for the rest of the show. They discuss the "reading level" of US Congressional speeches, and then they discuss the ins and outs of teaching linguistics at university.

A Preliminary Field Guide to Linguists, Part Two; by Athanasious Schadenpoodle; From Volume CL, Number 2, of Speculative Grammarian, April 2005. — The previous installment, dealing with Neoplatonicus and Functionalisticus, comprised a brief discussion of the less problematic genera in the family--less problematic in the sense that their grouping is not contested among those working in this area. This section will deal with two groups whose taxonomic status is a matter of quite some debate; to a large extent, the groupings presented should be taken as tentative, and done largely for the sake of organized presentation (cf. Gnibbes 1998 and Czechzindemeyl 1999 for representative positions on grouping of these species). There is wide consensus that all linguistica families are descended from a single precursor species, linguistica saussurii, but the exact relations among branches are obscure. While isolated members of all of the daughter species share significant similarities to the parent saussurii (e.g., a diet supplemented by ethanol), none of the groups do so consistently. (Read by Keith Slater.)

Language Made Difficult, Vol. XX — The SpecGram LingNerds are joined again by guest Madalena Cruz-Ferreira for Lies, Damned Lies, and Linguistics. They also discuss the spread of the -ome suffix and the biological approach to solving the riddle of the urheim of PIE. Finally, they discuss more questions and answers from comprehensive exams.

A Preliminary Field Guide to Linguists, Part One; by Athanasious Schadenpoodle; From Volume CL, Number 1, of Speculative Grammarian, January 2005. — While naturalists have long observed the behaviors of some of the better-known families within the Order Academica, producing for the lay person such fascinating and useful volumes as Jane's Guide to Physicists and The Sierra Club Picture Guide to Psychologists, the Family Linguistica has so far not been shown a great deal of attention. This is, in part, justifiable--the small numbers of linguists, and their comparatively drab plumage, draws fewer amateur naturalists. Still, there is a need for at least one major publication on the subject. While the current article does not fill that role, it is hoped that it is a step in the right direction. In this installment, I shall attempt a cursory description of two of the major genera, Neoplatonicus and Functionalisticus. (Read by Keith Slater.)

Language Made Difficult, Vol. XIX — The SpecGram LingNerds are joined by guest Madalena Cruz-Ferreira for Lies, Damned Lies, and Linguistics. They also discuss the fact that German speakers can’t say “squirrel” and whether “modulo” is the nerdiest preposition. Finally, they give more Prescriptivist Confessions.