[Ads-l] "theoretical computer scientist"
Dan Goncharoff
thegonch at GMAIL.COM
Thu Sep 22 20:38:27 UTC 2016
Yes. The more something sounds like it means something other than what it
is, the more confusing it is.
"three-valued logician" means nothing to me, so I can accept it.
"historical linguist" could have the meaning of "a linguist historically",
but that would require a supporting context.
"theoretical computer scientist" at first glance means "a computer
scientist theoretically", which makes no sense, especially when you don't
know "theoretical computer science" is a thing.
DanG
On Thu, Sep 22, 2016 at 4:25 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
wrote:
> > On Sep 22, 2016, at 4:06 PM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > The headline reads:
> > "NYU theoretical computer scientist among seven MacArthur 'genius' grant
> > winners in New York"
> >
> > It just feels so wrong...
> > DanG
>
> Any worse than "historical linguist" or, my favorite, "three-valued
> logician"?
>
> LH
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - https://urldefense.proofpoint.
> com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.americandialect.org&d=CwIBaQ&
> c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=wFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1TsSxPIWYiZRsMFFaLQ&m=
> 377q7f5TvfDM9j8qeAhvh0_TEqIpNKGSZbQLL6LP8W0&s=FZSrh02-
> 2ZjzashCQmqFDitCuCmOUr7NEbq3bbSTz1k&e=
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
------------------------------------------------------------
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