Million Words?

[Geoffrey Nunberg]

The OED defines the words more amply; it gives for "charlatan' "An
assuming empty pretender to knowledge or skill; a pretentious
impostor" and for  'quack', after the first sense of a medical
imposter, "2. In extended use: any person who dishonestly claims to
have special knowledge or skill in any field; = CHARLATAN n. 3." Seems
like a fit to me.

Geoff Nunberg

> From: RonButters at AOL.COM
> Date: January 4, 2009 6:55:13 PM PST
> Subject: Million words?
>
>
> I looked at the Wikipedia article referenced below, and at Grant
> Barrett's
> article. Like Grant, it seems clear to me that Payack's linguistic
> pronouncements are often ridiculously wrong. However, it is not
> clear to me how he can make
> much of a profit from this kind of enterprise. While it is
> infuriating to
> have someone given so much credence by the popular press, I'd
> reserve the words
> "charlatan" and "quack" for con-game people who make money selling
> worthless
> goods to innocent, gullible people, who are materially damaged
> thereby. Is this
> guy really hurting anyone, or is he just someone who likes to get
> his name in
> the papers? WE all know that the million-word thing is nonsense, but
> is a
> concerted effort to "bring him down" maybe just a bit of overkill? I
> don't have a
> strong opinion on this--just wondering (the libel laws being what
> they are,
> etc.)
>
> In a message dated 1/3/09 12:35:14 AM, nunberg at ISCHOOL.BERKELEY.EDU
> writes:
>
>
>> There was another one of these just the other day in the National
>> Post. I've had a Google News alert out on this guy for a while and
>> have been making a point of writing to every journalist who cites him
>> to tell them that the man is a charlatan -- I want to see as a point
>> of interest whether it is in fact possible to bring a quack like this
>> down. In my notes I include the following list of URL's.
>>
>> http://www.doubletongued.org/index.php/grantbarrett/comments/a_quick_debunkin
>> g_of_a_language_quack/
>>
>> http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002809.html
>>
>> http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002795.html
>>
>> http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=816
>>
>> http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004189.html
>>
>> http://www.slate.com/id/2139611/
>>
>> http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~nunberg/payack.html
>>
>> There's also Payack's Wikipedia entry to be dealt with at some point:
>>
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Language_Monitor
>>
>> Geoff Nunberg
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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