Truespel Spam

[Tom Zurinskas]

You'd make a great politician Zimmer.  You say you don't want to excommunicate anyone, just me.  No apologies to me.  Does that make sense to you somehow.  No, if you burn one witch you're a witch burner.

You say I refuse to learn.  On the contrary, I've been the one to bring up the issues that I disagree with hoping that others would see (hear) things the same way.  This is a position, not a refusal to learn.  This to you is bible burning heresy.  But I unlike most folks have been through the language word by word phonetically.  There are issues.  My focus is making phonetics children friendly and easy to do for English learners.  Got a problem with that?

An innocent Plowman is more worthy than a vicious Prince.
Ben Franklin

Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL5+
See truespel.com - and the 4 truespel books plus "Occasional Poems" at authorhouse.com.







> Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2008 00:04:41 -0500
> From: bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU
> Subject: Re: Truespel Spam
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Benjamin Zimmer
> Subject: Re: Truespel Spam
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Feb 4, 2008 11:39 PM, LanDi Liu  wrote:
>>
>> Ben Zimmer (one of my superheroes) wrote:
>>
>>>> (Outside the theology of
>>>> ADS-L? If only we had the powers of excommunication...)
>>
>> This, and a lot of the other remarks about TZ are surprising in the light of
>> the ADS's own description of its members (from the home page): "Our members
>> include academics and amateurs, professionals and dilettantes, teachers and
>> writers."
>
> My comment was of course written in jest (even if I neglected to add
> an emoticon). I was just struck by the ludicrousness of a
> "theological" ADS-L, presumably run by a cabal of high priests. I'm
> not interested in excommunicating anyone -- on the contrary, I find
> the openness of ADS-L to be one of its virtues, overall. My apologies,
> Randy, if I gave the impression of close-mindedness.
>
>> There are a lot of "names" that have come to my mind when reading TZ's
>> posts, too, but that's where they have stayed.
>>
>> I am in no way condoning his behavior, however. It does verge on spam
>> sometimes, and that's completely wrong on a list like this.
>>
>> Maybe it's better to address these iniquities more specifically, and with
>> the emotional detachment normally characteristic of academic discourse
>> (whether or not that discourse includes participants, like me, with no
>> "piece of paper"*).
>
> I've never cared for the "professional" vs. "amateur" distinction,
> particularly when it comes to more lexicographical matters. This is a
> point I raised on Language Log recently with respect to the New
> Scientist article on "amateur" lexicography:
>
> http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/005360.html
>
> As should be obvious to anyone who regularly reads ADS-L, many of the
> most important recent discoveries in historical lexicography have come
> from the so-called "dilettantes". I certainly didn't mean to impugn
> any non-professionals with my "excommunication" jab, which was of
> course directed at one person who steadfastly refuses to learn the
> basics of phonetics and phonology -- something that any "amateur", let
> alone a self-proclaimed "expert", should be able to do.
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

_________________________________________________________________
Need to know the score, the latest news, or you need your Hotmail®-get your "fix".
http://www.msnmobilefix.com/Default.aspx

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org