[linguistics] snerk splorf - SpecGram

[trochee]

(Also posted to alphabet_soup and linguaphiles; apologies to those who get it thrice).
From Linguist List: The latest Speculative Grammarian has come out:

Volume CXLIX, number 3.

So That Explains It!--A Letter from the Managing Editor
Letters to the Editor
World's Linguistic Fundamentals Sound--SpecGram Wire Services
A Meta-Analysis of Article Length vs Quality--Alfraad vonn Güügënschnëchtën & Mo d'Qi
Infinity and Beyond: A Prolegomena--Bjorn-Bob Weaselflinger
Regular Isomorphisms of Categorization in the Apathetic Informant--Angus Æ. Balderdash, Esq.
The Original English Movement--Announcement

Hee hee. The Weaselflinger article is particularly snarky about UG and syntax.

The Whankydoodle Constraint (henceforth WC) requires that all sentences in strict-syntax contain the form 'whankydoodle' directly dominated by CP. Reinstating the form (reasons for its non-occurrence will be discussed below) would thus lead to sentences such as the following:
1

a. Whankydoodle I think that is a ferret.
b. We decided whankydoodle that it was a ferret.
c. Has whankydoodle he finished loading the catapult yet?

Even to a layperson, these sentences are transparently bad, so the Less Is More Axiom can be considered to be fully validated. For the analyst, the only tasks remaining are (1) accounting for the non-occurrence of whankydoodle in all other English sentences, and (2) accounting for the author's ability to include it in (1a-c).

Comments

[isolt.livejournal.com]

Hee!

Thanks for the links :)

del.icio.us?

[xaosenkosmos.livejournal.com]

Silly question: do you have a del.icio.us account? It's a really neat service. <frink>With the link posting, and the categorization, and the subscribing, and the whiling the hours away! Oh where did my time go?!</frink>

Re: del.icio.us?

[trochee.livejournal.com]

oh dear. Now I have one. No more time, ever.

Re: del.icio.us?

[xaosenkosmos.livejournal.com]

Yeah, i'm sorry. It's awful, isn't it?

(I actually noticed you popping up in the recent list, trolling for amusement, before you posted this. I'm my usual "jbm" self over there.)