Linguist of the Day: Emily Bender!

[linguist at LINGUISTLIST.ORG]

Dear LINGUIST List Subscribers,

We are proud to announce that Emily Bender
is our newest Linguist of the Day! This
storied champion of Computational Linguistics
joins her celebrated colleagues in the Hall of Heroes!

http://linguistlist.org/fund-drive/2012/hall-of-heroes.cfm

When did she first realize that she was a linguist?...

"In one sense, I've been a linguist for just
about as long as I can remember.  But for a long
time, I didn't actually know it.

I have a distinct memory of spending some day-dreaming
time in middleschool wondering why there were two kinds
of letters ('vowels' and 'consonants') and what the
difference was between these classes anyway. Though
I'm pretty sure I came up with some possible answers
to that question, they have long since been covered
over in my memory by classes in phonetics."

I bet that many of you can relate to her first
foray into linguistic analysis! If this realization
resonates with you, read the whole of this exciting
tale of linguistic discovery below!

http://linguistlist.org/fund-drive/2012/hero-bender.cfm

- The LINGUIST List Crew