10.976, FYI: Collective Noun List, Interpreters, LIA Meeting
LINGUIST Network
linguist at linguistlist.org
Wed Jun 23 23:08:01 UTC 1999
LINGUIST List: Vol-10-976. Wed Jun 23 1999. ISSN: 1068-4875.
Subject: 10.976, FYI: Collective Noun List, Interpreters, LIA Meeting
Moderators: Anthony Rodrigues Aristar: Wayne State U.<aristar at linguistlist.org>
Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan U. <hdry at linguistlist.org>
Andrew Carnie: U. of Arizona <carnie at linguistlist.org>
Reviews: Andrew Carnie: U. of Arizona <carnie at linguistlist.org>
Associate Editors: Martin Jacobsen <marty at linguistlist.org>
Brett Churchill <brett at linguistlist.org>
Ljuba Veselinova <ljuba at linguistlist.org>
Assistant Editors: Scott Fults <scott at linguistlist.org>
Jody Huellmantel <jody at linguistlist.org>
Karen Milligan <karen at linguistlist.org>
Software development: John H. Remmers <remmers at emunix.emich.edu>
Chris Brown <chris at linguistlist.org>
Home Page: http://linguistlist.org/
Editor for this issue: Scott Fults <scott at linguistlist.org>
=================================Directory=================================
1)
Date: Sat, 19 Jun 1999 16:22:48 +0200
From: "Michal Lisecki" <magura at cz.top.pl>
Subject: Inventive collective nouns [Fwd: AWADmail Issue 13]
2)
Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1999 16:52:00 -0500
From: "Karlin, Ben" <KARLIB at mail.dmh.state.mo.us>
Subject: NEW LIST: Interpreters/Translators in Mental Health Settings
3)
Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1999 18:00:27 -0500
From: "tauber1 at uiuc.edu" <tauber1 at uiuc.edu>
Subject: LIA business meeting
-------------------------------- Message 1 -------------------------------
Date: Sat, 19 Jun 1999 16:22:48 +0200
From: "Michal Lisecki" <magura at cz.top.pl>
Subject: Inventive collective nouns [Fwd: AWADmail Issue 13]
All,
Thought you might enjoy the entries from the latest AWAD contest. Should
you come up
with some new collective nouns let me know <magura at ares.fils.us.edu.pl> and
I shall pass them down to the list. You might also like to contact AWAD
directly at <anu at wordsmith.org> or <wsmith at wordsmith.org>.
tafn mike
===========================================================================
=
AWADmail Issue 13
June 16, 1999
A Compendium of Feedback on the Words in AWAD and
Other Interesting Tidbits about Words and Languages
Last week's theme featured a series of collective nouns and invited readers
to contribute their own coinages. What an outpouring of clever word brewing
it produced! It was a treat to read the creative expressions; however,
winnowing a few from over a thousand to include here was not.
While these inventions were no doubt concocted in a playful spirit, one
can't fail to notice a reflection of life itself in the fanciful idioms of
day-to-day experience. From "a succor of grandmas" (Daniel Cummings
dan at polysense.com) to "a patience of tech support callers" (A.J. Coco,
ajcoco at marshal.co.orange.ca.us), and "a whatever of teenagers" (Amy Guskin
aguskin at eamdc.com) to "a digression on web-searchers" (J.J. Hill
library at alznsw.asn.au), we witness our fears, follies, annoyances and
attitudes.
The collective nouns ranged from those used to describe people from the
world's oldest profession, "an anthology of pros," to the newest one,
"a spider of webmasters," both suggested by a large number of readers.
Almost every other calling in between was included. It seems the law
profession is everyone's favorite choice for flagellation. Here are some of
the choicest:
a codicil of lawyers Ann Azevedo (donnann at tiac.net)
an objection of lawyers Hamish MacEwan (amish at macewan.gen.nz)
a tragedy of lawyers Bob Nisonger (bnisonger at backweb.com)
a brief of lawyers Dan (dcovino at manu.com), Amy Guskin
(aguskin at eamdc.com)
a slime of lawyers Helene Wenger (helene at bkwk.com)
a greed of lawyers Erickson (kepraha at mbox.vol.cz)
a remora of lawyers John Virkkala (jvirkk at aol.com)
a cheat of lawyers J. Watts (jwatts at rosemail.rose.hp.com)
a mercenary of lawyers Marlene Caroselli (mccpd at aol.com)
As may be imagined, many took shots at other occupations stereotypically
contemptuous, such as tax-collectors and government officials. Enough
bashing
already. Let's see some other selections:
a circle of geometricians John Prowse (jprowse at integratec.com.au)
a balm of grandmothers Sandy Troth (sjtroth at mindspring.com)
a cylinder of CDs Ronald DelPorto
(ronald_delporto at steris.com)
a wildcard of hackers Tom Guest (tom at division.co.uk)
a hindrance of tech-support people Deborah C.K. Wenger dwenger at amlaw.com
a blizzard of AOL disks Elyse Chapman (elyse at compuserve.com)
a host of nameservers J-Mag Guthrie (j-mag at brokersys.com)
a monica of sins Peter Olsen (pcolsen at draper.com)
a row of knitters B. Martin (bdmartin at mail.cvn.net)
a silicone of Baywatch reruns Duck (duck at hellskitchen.com)
a clutch of mechanics Lucy Dickinson (lrd at worldway.com)
a phile of lovers Shirley Woods
(shirleywoods at compuserve.com)
a stoppit of parents Dirk Vanderbeke
(vanderbeke at t-online.de)
a conspiracy of traffic lights Thomas Maslen (maslen at pobox.com)
a purchase of senators Maurizio C. Bettini-Saitta
(mcbs at usa.com)
a dump of spammers Catherine Carol Edge
(ccedge at indiana.edu)
a crop of plant scientists Patsy Evans
(pevans at canr1.cag.uconn.edu)
a collage of Post-it notes mbhumphry at caltex.co.za
a drove of taxi cabs Jody Drake (jody at mutrux.com)
a wad of gum-chewers Linda
Bosserman(linda.bosserman at cos.srs.com)
a dictionary of linguaphiles Glenn Glazer (gglazer at ucla.edu)
a catch of jugglers Ann (annc at idir.net)
a byte of programmers Dave Horsfall (dave at fgh.geac.com.au)
an array of programmers Amod (prk at vsnl.com)
a clique of computer mice Crystal Cutler
(batbrat at saws.softcom.net)
a portfolio of stock brokers Durgesh Rao
(durgesh at saathi.ncst.ernet.in)
a stack of newspapermen Gary Belkin (dnrme at webtv.net)
an obfuscation of politicians Ed Paynter (efp at pop.inetdirect.net)
a plurality of group nouns Subash Chandra K.V.
(subbu at amiindia.co.in)
a matrix of mathematicians Shawn Griffith
(shawn-griffith at raytheon.com)
a suite of chocolates Robert Tolmach (rtolmach at micro-net.com)
a passion of poets Khatru (mckennml at wellsfargo.com)
an imelda of shoes Rita M. Markey (rita.m.markey at db.com)
a sneer of Mac users DBgammon (dbgammon at nbnet.nb.ca)
a segregation of racists Hofmeyr (wrlhof at iafrica.com.na)
an intimidation of gargoyles Harry M. Kachline (apu4039 at corecom.net)
a sum of accountants Austen Naughten
(anaughten at oxfam.org.uk)
a counting of accountants Dean Kielpinski (trystero at senet.com.au)
a number of accountants Dan Olinger (dolinger at bju.edu)
a mass of priests Jim Zehr (jzehr at sauder.com)
a class of computer programmers Jim Watters (jwatters at cadvision.com)
[a class of OOP programmers, to be more precise. -Anu]
an obfuscation of user manuals A. R. White (nomdenet at isi.edu)
an enterprise of trekkies David Allen (david at rsgsystems.com)
a beam of trekkies Cynthia J Hernandez
(yo109cita at juno.com)
a grab-bag of purse-snatchers Susan Williams (susianwil at aol.com)
a 404 of former websites Larry Sherman (larry at slac.stanford.edu)
a of nihilists James S. Hawtree (raph at fnal.gov)
a muddle of deans Michael Grant
(michael.grant at colorado.edu)
an interference of mother-in-laws John Weston (john.weston at talk21.com)
a blather of chat-room participants Jeff Marx (jeffmarx at aol.com)
a confusion of multi-disk CD players Robert Tolmach
(rtolmach at micro-net.com)
a brace of orthopedists/orthodontists (suggested by a lot of people)
The most popular collective term was a giggle of girls. Some other
collective nouns that employ spoonerism, pun, blend, and other linguistic
devices:
a wunch of bankers
a somephony of music critics Dinesh Katiyar
(katiyar at cs.stanford.edu)
an ear of colonels John Imhof (n2vw at skyhigh.com),
Projeto Alcance (alcance at iconet.com.br)
a duke of URLs Ric Bailey (bailey at grid.com)
a herd of hearing aids Robert Tolmach (rtolmach at micro-net.com)
a dissemblage of politicians Mike Trebing
(Mike.Trebing at phil.frb.org)
a silence of lambs Fredrock (fkepler at eyescape.com)
Ann Elise Smoot (ann.elise at dial.pipex.com) asked, "I've really enjoyed the
words this week, being an animal lover. I read recently that a group of
larks is called an exaltation. Is this true? It doesn't confirm this in my
dictionary. If it is true, what a wonderful fact!"
Yes, Ann, it is "an exaltation of larks." In fact this is the title of a
book by James Lipton. This delightful book is a treasury of collective
nouns
from whimsical (a split of schizoids) to inspiring (a blur of
Impressionists). Find it in your local library or a friendly neighborhood
bookstore. If you need more, try "A Crash of Rhinoceroses" by Rex Collings.
Francis S.M. Barnett (fbarnett at kamloopslawyers.com) sent this correction,
"If you announce that you are in a sounder of swines, the grammarian ranger
will not mourn your passing. Swine is the singular and plural for this
usage (although for colloquial usage as a term of contempt, the plural with
an "s" is acceptable)." Thank you!
We close with a couple of stories. From L. Rivlin
(l.rivlin at btinternet.com):
"A few years ago, John Major invited some ex-prime ministers for a
get-together at 10, Downing Street. I think it was Harold MacMillan,
Harold Wilson, James Callaghan and Margaret Thatcher (I'm only
absolutely sure about MacMillan and Thatcher). While they were there,
Thatcher speculated about the proper word denoting a group of prime
ministers. MacMillan suggested that the correct term would be: a Lack
of Principles."
David Steelman (steelman at ficnet.net) wrote, "I recall the story about a man
and wife sitting in a bar. Another man came in and sat down next to the
woman. As he sipped his drink, he ogled her until her husband, incensed,
demanded that the man stop looking at his wife and wipe those filthy
thoughts out of his mind. The man said, `I wasn't ogling your wife; I
wasn't
thinking any filthy thoughts; I just came in here for a piece of beer.'
Since this `measure` word is normally associated with another noun and not
with beer, it gives the lie to the man's words."
A word of thanks to everyone who took the challenge and contributed.
Your lexic ally,
Anu
...........................................................................
A word is dead / When it is said, / Some say. / I say it just / Begins to
live / That day. -Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
Send your comments about words to anu at wordsmith.org. AWADmail archives are
available at http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/awadmail.html . To get them by
e-mail, send a blank message to wsmith at wordsmith.org with the Subject line
as "awadmail nn" where nn is the issue number, e.g., "awadmail 13".
===========================================================================
tafn mike
_______________________________________________________________
Michal Lisecki, Ph.D candidate <magura at ares.fils.us.edu.pl>
Institute of Slavonic Studies, University of Silesia (Poland)
42-270 Sosnowiec, ul. Zytnia 12. tel/fax: ++32 291 47 84 ext.213
http://www.cz.top.pl/~magura <magura at cz.top.pl> finger 4 my PGP
-------------------------------- Message 2 -------------------------------
Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1999 16:52:00 -0500
From: "Karlin, Ben" <KARLIB at mail.dmh.state.mo.us>
Subject: NEW LIST: Interpreters/Translators in Mental Health Settings
MO-SIGN
mo-sign at services.state.mo.us
MO-SIGN is an automated, unmoderated e-mail discussion list for translators
and interpreters working in mental health settings. It grew out of Missouri
Department of Mental Health+s Mental Health Interpreters+ Resource Project
(MHIRP). That program has traditionally focused on Sign language
interpreting but is expanding to include spoken languages as well.
The list is a service of the Missouri Department of Mental Health and
runs on Majordomo software. While anyone may join the list, it is intended
primarily for interpreters and translators who work in public, private,
community and educational mental health settings.
To join send an e-mail to majordomo at services.state.mo.us with the message:
subscribe MO-SIGN <your e-mail address>
or check the info on the web site:
<http://www.modmh.state.mo.us/deaf/discuss.htm>
------------------------------------------------------
Ben Karlin <KARLIB at mail.dmh.state.mo.us>
Staff Interpreter for the Deaf, St Louis Psychiatric Rehabilitation Center
-------------------------------- Message 3 -------------------------------
Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1999 18:00:27 -0500
From: "tauber1 at uiuc.edu" <tauber1 at uiuc.edu>
Subject: LIA business meeting
It may be possible to conduct an informal business meeting of the
Linguistic Iconism Association this summer during the Linguistic
Institute at Champaigne-Urbana, Illinois. Members (and others who might
be interested in the organization) wishing to know more about this
please contact me at the e-mail address below. Thanks.
Best regards,
Jess Tauber
tauber1 at uiuc.edu
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-10-976
More information about the LINGUIST
mailing list