Cunning linguist (fwd link)

[D. Terence Langendoen]

This episode reminds me of the time when I was on the faculty of the City
University of New York (CUNY) PhD Program in Linguistics in the late
1970s. At that time, we started up a Working Papers series. When it came to
naming that publication, we naturally thought of The CUNY Linguist, but thought
bettter of it, and hit upon CUNYForum, an even better pun, which is what we in
fact named it.

Terry

--
D. Terence Langendoen
Prof Emeritus, Dept of Linguistics, Univ of Arizona, and
Expert, Division of Information and Intelligent Systems (CISE/IIS)
National Science Foundation, 4201 Wilson Blvd, Room 1125,
Arlington VA 22230, USA
Phone: +1 (703) 292-5088   Email: dlangend at nsf.gov

Quoting Aidan Wilson :
> I suspect that people innocently use the term 'cunning linguist', probably
> not realising its sexual connotations, and also without realising that
> linguists (beyond about 3rd year undergraduate) categorically don't use
> the term.
>
> It's understandable of course, a report writer's goal for a title is to
> come up with something snappy; puns are good, as are such close word
> associations and cunning and linguist(ics).
>
> Whever I hear it I humourlessly tell people that we (linguists, as a
> community) have banned the joke. Maybe someone should - I don't know -
> send out a media release from some fictional consortium of international
> linguists, advising the world that the noun 'linguist' shall never
> co-occur with the descriptor 'cunning'. Anyone else got a suggestion?
> Mine's a bit stupid, and goes against this whole antiprescriptivist thing
> that's seemingly now prerequired for linguist-hood.
>
> --
> Aidan Wilson
>
> The University of Sydney
> +612 9036 9558
> +61428 458 969
> aidan.wilson at usyd.edu.au
>
> On Wed, 4 Mar 2009, Jesse Johnson wrote:
>
>> What does Cunnilingus have to do with language revitalization? Does
>> the Hawaiian language give women pleasure or is it a real tongue
>> twister???
>>
>> On Wed, Mar 4, 2009 at 9:53 AM, Richard LaFortune  wrote:
>>> that wasn't really the title of the article was it
>>>
>>> --- On Wed, 3/4/09, phil cash cash  wrote:
>>>
>>> From: phil cash cash Subject: [ILAT] Cunning linguist (fwd link)
>>> To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
>>> Date: Wednesday, March 4, 2009, 10:23 AM
>>>
>>>
>>> -----Inline Attachment Follows-----
>>>
>>> Cunning linguist
>>> A look at what it takes to save dying languages
>>>
>>> Interview by Adrienne LaFrance
>>> Mar 4, 2009
>>>
>>> On March 12, linguists from across the globe will descend on Hawaii to
>>> discuss
>>> the loss of language around the world, and how to prevent it. Chair of the
>>> Linguistics Department at the University of Hawaii at M?noa Nick
>>> Thieberger is one of the conferences organizers and took time to chat with
>>> the
>>> Weekly about what languages were losing and what it will take to preserve
>>> entire cultures, one word at a time.
>>>
>>> Access full article below:
>>> http://honoluluweekly.com/qanda/2009/03/cunning-linguist/
>>
>>

--
D. Terence Langendoen
Prof Emeritus, Dept of Linguistics, Univ of Arizona, and
Expert, Division of Information and Intelligent Systems (CISE/IIS)
National Science Foundation, 4201 Wilson Blvd, Room 1125,
Arlington VA 22230, USA
Phone: +1 (703) 292-5088 Email: dlangend at nsf.gov