A million English words, or only 600,000? Either way, it's a language packed with more words than you'll ever need

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Wed, Jul 9, 2008 at 2:45 PM, Baker, John <JMB at stradley.com> wrote:
>
>        While Arnold's concerns are valid, I would argue that it's
> dangerous to ignore bogus claims that are already getting attention
> elsewhere and that mocking may be the most effective strategy.

Oh, there's been plenty of mocking. Here's the last of several
Language Log posts I did on the Payack poppycock:

http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004189.html

And there was Jesse Sheidlower on Slate...

http://www.slate.com/id/2139611/

And Geoff Nunberg on Fresh Air...

http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~nunberg/payack.html

As my LL post indicates, he's been stretching out this million-word
countdown business for a very long time. And now he's pushing it out
further still, all the way till next April. Mockery's all well and
good, but it gets exhausting after a while. I'm afraid there will
always be gullible reporters willing to fall for this stuff.


--Ben Zimmer

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