XPost: alt.usage.english   
   From: kehoea@parhasard.net   
      
    Ar an fichiú lá de mí Lúnasa, scríobh HenHanna:   
      
    > 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?   
      
   Yes. No.   
      
    >  -----  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   
    >   
    >   
    >   
      
   --   
   ‘As I sat looking up at the Guinness ad, I could never figure out /   
   How your man stayed up on the surfboard after fourteen pints of stout’   
   (C. Moore)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)