XPost: alt.usage.english   
   From: HenHanna@devnull.tb   
      
   On 8/19/2024 12:41 AM, Aidan Kehoe wrote:   
   >   
   >   Ar an t-ochtú lá déag de mí Lúnasa, scríobh Tristan Miller:   
   >   
   >   > Samuel Johnson famously defined a lexicographer as "a harmless drudge".   
   Have   
   >   > any other lexicographers or linguists made similarly self-deprecating   
   >   > statements about their profession? (I tried some web searches but came up   
   >   > empty-handed; ChatGPT provided some real zingers from the likes of   
   Ferdinand   
   >   > de Saussure, Noam Chomsky, and David Crystal, alas all hallucinated.)   
   >   
   > Part of the difficulty with this is that Chomsky and e.g. Boas have and had   
   > egos the size of North America. I do think one needs a robust self-confidence   
   > to be good in the field, above and beyond what those around you would   
   support,   
   > something which will not make people quick to self-deprecation.   
   >   
      
      
   Lunasa  is  August?    is it related to Lunes, Lunar, Looney?   
      
      
      
     -----  Can an anagram amuse senile lexicographers?   
      
      
      
   interesting linguists in movies:   
                     Henry Higgins   
                     and the one played by Jimmy Stewart   
      
                      the one played by Amy Adams   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)