last class discussion, out of context

[eirias]

On the Pirahã:

MS: I wouldn't want to study the genetics of that population.
MM: Actually, they're pretty diverse; Portuguese traders come through and--
MS: --teach 'em recursion?

Comments

[gieves.livejournal.com]

You have led me down the primrose path of distraction today. First I said, "Pirahã??" So I clicked. I then wallowed around in Science articles and skimmed through part of the "Cultural Constraints on Grammar and Cognition..." article from Current Anthropology before concluding that the terminology of linguistics is somewhat opaque to the uninitiated

Then I gave in to temptation and started prowling around Language Log, and I was fascinated. My favorite posts were on the worrisome tendency of authors to imbue Wikipedia with authority and on the passive voice (http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000869.html) (particularly the line, "'My girlfriend suffered an injury while we were arguing' is not passive, even when uttered at the hospital emergency room by a guilty boyfriend concealing his agency in the affair.")

And then I remembered that I was, you know, at Work. Alas, my intellectual inquiries into linguistics shall have to wait another day.

[gieves.livejournal.com]

Oh! ...and *laugh*

When I returned to your journal to tell you what you had wrought, I re-read your post, and cracked up. Context helped.

[eirias.livejournal.com]

Hee hee hee :). Glad to be of service. Or, you know, disservice, that works too. :)