linguisticians

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>By the way, what do professional linguists (i.e. those trained in
>linguistics) think about the popular use of the word linguist to designate
>someone who knows several languages but does not necessary know anything
>about linguistics?

I don't know what they think, but "linguist" has at least five meanings:
(1) linguistician; (2) polyglot; (3) master of language ["obsolete"]; (4)
interpreter ["obsolete"]; (5) one who licks something [currently used only
in compounds].

I think a morpheme is a dire creature from one of Jack Vance's novels --
something like an erjin or a deodand, perhaps.

(^_^)

-- Doug Wilson