Catching up

[Ross Clark]

5/9 Lewis Nkosi died (2010) [South African writer]
6/9 First Puritans leave Plymouth on the _Mayflower_ (1620)
- One of the first English-speaking settlements in North America.
- Crystal explains the r-dropping of (eastern) New England speech from
the fact that most of the settlers originated from London and other
eastern areas. I wonder if there is local evidence of this?
I was under the impression that evidence for the change first appears in
London in the late 18th century, and had spread from there to other
parts of England and to the colonies.

7/9 I.A.Richards died (1979) [author, with C.K.Ogden, of _The Meaning of
Meaning_ (1923), which is about semantics. Crystal also mentions an
essay appended to this book by Bronislaw Malinowski, "The problem of
meaning in primitive languages".

8/9 International Literacy Day
9/9 First reported case of a computer bug (1947)
- A story (credited to "computer pioneer Grace Hopper") of how a moth
became stuck in a relay of the Mark II computer at Harvard. "It was
extracted and can still be seen - stuck into the logbook for the day..."
But no, just a bit of Harvardian wit, since we have:
"Mr Edison...had been up the two previous nights discovering 'a bug' in
his phonograph -- an expression for solving a difficulty..."
- Pall Mall Gazette, 1889

10/9 Mary Wollstonecraft died (1797)
- A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792)
etc.
11/9 Hannah Weiner died (1997)
American poet (born 1928), associated with the "Language Poets" and
their journal, L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E, which always came up in library
catalogues when I was searching for plain old "Language", journal of the
Linguistic Society of America. Another name is Charles Bernstein.
Early work using naval flag signals..."idiosyncratic
style...schizophrenic condition"...

[guido wugi]

5/9 Lewis Nkosi died (2010)  [South African writer]
6/9   (...)
7/9    I.A.Richards died (1979) [...]
8/9   (...)
9/9   (...)
10/9    Mary Wollstonecraft died (1797)
    (...)
11/9    Hannah Weiner died (1997)     (...)

There's quite some dying going on in linguactivityland ;-)

[Aidan Kehoe]

Post by guido wugi

5/9 Lewis Nkosi died (2010)  [South African writer]
6/9   (...)
7/9    I.A.Richards died (1979) [...]
8/9   (...)
9/9   (...)
10/9    Mary Wollstonecraft died (1797)
    (...)
11/9    Hannah Weiner died (1997)     (...)

There's quite some dying going on in linguactivityland ;-)

There’s a lot of it about. Chomsky’s still alive at 95. Who’s interested in
pre-writing his obituary?

[Ross Clark]

Post by guido wugi

5/9 Lewis Nkosi died (2010)  [South African writer]
6/9   (...)
7/9    I.A.Richards died (1979) [...]
8/9   (...)
9/9   (...)
10/9    Mary Wollstonecraft died (1797)
    (...)
11/9    Hannah Weiner died (1997)     (...)

There's quite some dying going on in linguactivityland ;-)

I noticed, early in the year, that Crystal seemed to have more deathdays
than birthdays in his book. It may be true, but I haven't bothered to
count. I suppose you could argue that the stuff we remember people for
tends to be closer to the former than the latter.