Language Log

Jeremy Roebuck, "Defendant with no language proves difficult to prosecute", Philadelphia Inquirer 1/11/2011:

As [Juan Jose Gonzalez Luna] has next to no language skills, his case has baffled Montgomery County courts since his arrest on drug trafficking charges late last year. While courts have come a long way in providing access to interpreters in a host of exotic languages, no one is sure how to translate for a man who knows no language at all. […]

Accommodating those with limited access to language is a rare problem in U.S. courts, but one that judges have met with limited success.

Many have avoided the problem, declaring such defendants incompetent to stand trial. Others have relied on a complex and imperfect method of interpretation, one still viewed with skepticism by many in the legal profession.

And while most courts say they do their best, a good effort is not good enough, said Michele LaVigne, a lawyer and scholar at the University of Wisconsin Law School.

It is not, after all, that defendants like Gonzalez are incompetent to stand trial, but that the U.S. court system largely remains ill-suited for trying them.

"The law is a language-based system," she said. "Drop someone in who can't access that immediately, and we still don't know what to do with them."

Today's SMBC imagines the invention of an implantable grammar corrector, the whom-o-matic tooth:

Paul Kay:

The website of a Palo Alto yoga emporium sports the following bit of pricing information:

monthly unlimited automatic with drawl ** $125

The doubly starred footnote explains:

** Requires a 6-month commitment.

Which seems to mean you can have all the yoga lessons you can stand if you sign up for an automatic withdrawal of $125/mo. from your bank account (for at least six months).

From the Ohio State department's memorial page:

Ilse was born on January 31, 1922 in Tallinn, Estonia, but left Estonia as a refugee in 1944, fleeing the Soviet invasion of her homeland. She earned her first Ph.D., in Philology, from the University of Hamburg in 1948 and a second Ph.D., in Linguistics, from the University of Michigan in 1959. In 1963, Ilse joined the faculty at The Ohio State University. Ilse came to OSU from the University of Michigan, after receiving her Ph.D., and spending 1959-63 at the Communication Sciences Laboratory as Research Associate. At Ohio State, she divided her time between phonetics, historical linguistics, and administration, serving as Chair 1965-71, Acting Chair 1984-85, and again Chair 1985-87.  In fact, she was the Department's first Chair (1965-1971) when it was founded in 1965, after having spent two years in the Slavic Department. Professor Emeritus since 1987.

Ilse enjoyed a long and distinguished career.  She was the author, co-author or editor of 20 books, about 200 articles and over 100 reviews. Ilse was honored in many ways for her immense contributions to the field of linguistics. At The Ohio State University, she was awarded the title of Distinguished University Professor and received the University Distinguished Scholar Award, the university's highest recognition for scholarly achievement. She also held four honorary doctorates from Essex University, England (1977), the University of Lund, Sweden (1982), Tartu University, Estonia (1989), and The Ohio State University (1999). She was Foreign Member of the Finnish Academy of Sciences since 1998, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1990, and Foreign Member of the Estonian Academy of Sciences (2008).

I have no idea.

Several people have suggested that the ravings of Jared Lee Loughner ("The government is implying mind control and brainwash on the people by controlling grammar"; "What's government if words don't have meaning?") may have been influenced by the ravings of David Wynn Miller ("I am the judge in 1988 who wrote the mathematical interface on all 5,000 languages proving that language is a linear equation in algebra certifying that all words have 900 definitions through this mathematical algebraic formula and over the course of the past 21 years have developed an accuracy level in the syntaxing of language sentence structure to prove the correct sentence structure communication syntax language is required in a court system"; "FOR THESE TRUTH-COMMUNICATIONS-CITIZEN'S-KNOWLEDGE OF THESE FACTS ARE WITH THESE CLAIMS OF THESE FACTS-AS-FACTS BY THESE SENTENCE-CONTRACTS."), mentioned about a year ago on LL ("All words have 900 definitions?", 1/29/2010).

I'm skeptical about this — so far I haven't seen any connection more specific than the fact that both relate to language and both are ravings; but I don't have a lot of patience for reading this sort of thing.

On January 4, Cornel West was asked on MSNBC to evaluate the state of the country and President Obama's performance. On January 5 and 6, Rush Limbaugh carried on at some length about a speech error in Prof. West's answer. On January 7, Ann Althouse joined the conversation.

My modest contribution today is to describe the cited error in a bit more detail, and to offer a small bit of evidence about its likely causes.

Jean-Baptiste Michel and Erez Lieberman-Aiden have volunteered to come discuss their "Culturomics" paper at the Linguistic Society of America meeting now underway in Pittsburgh.

They'll be in the Duquesne Room of the Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh Downtown on Sunday morning, 1/9/2010, from 10:30 to 12:00, for a half-hour presentation and an hour of discussion. This is not part of the regular LSA program, so if you're in the Pittsburgh area, you can attend without the cost of registering for the conference. (Though goodness knows the LSA could use the money, and its annual meeting is a remarkably cheap conference to attend.)

Rep. Steve King:

"As I deliberate and I listen to the gentleman from Tennessee, I have to make the point that when you challenge the mendacity of the leader or another member, there is an opportunity to rise to a point of order, there is an opportunity to make a motion to take the gentleman's words down, however many of the members are off on other endeavors and I would make the point that- that the leader and the speaker have established their integrity and their mendacity for years in this Congress and I don't believe it can be effectively challenged and those who do so actually cast aspersions on themselves for making wild accu- accusations."

The American Dialect Society (meeting in Pittsburgh in conjunction with the Linguistic Society of America) has selected nominees in the various categories for Word of the Year. You can check out the full list here.

The final votes in all categories will take place tonight (Friday) at 5:30 pm in Sterlings 1, 2, 3 at the Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh Downtown Hotel. Attendees of the cabal LSA conference (and interested members of the public who happen to be in Pittsburgh) are welcome to attend and participate. Those who are unable to attend can follow the action via Twitter at @americandialect (using the #woty10 hashtag).

[Late update: And the winner is… app — a word not on the original list of candidates, but instead nominated from the floor, much like tweet last year.]

I'm on my way to Pittsburgh for the annual meeting of the Linguistic Society of America. And while I'm waiting for my plane, I think I have just about enough time for a question, even if I fluff it out a bit by giving you the train of thought that led up to it.

I was amused this morning by the headline on William D. Cohan's opinion piece in the New York Times about Goldman Sachs' investment in Facebook: "Friends With Benefits".  Standard dictionaries haven't picked up on this phrase yet,  but Wikipedia tells us that it means "non-exclusive recurring sexual (or near-sexual) relationships", and offers links to  a telenovela, a sitcom soundtrack CD, an independent film, an upcoming TV series, and a big-time Hollywood movie due out this summer. The Urban Dictionary, though not always reliable, nails it this time: "Two friends who have a sexual realtionship without being emotionally involved. Typically two good friends who have casual sex without a monogomous relationship or any kind of commitment." (Well, "realtionship" is slightly under-proofread, but you can't have everything.)

It was a disappointment to find that Cohan didn't do anything further with this metaphor in the body of the article.  I thought about blogging the headline, but decided not to.

For the eggcorn file, from the buffet at our Hawaii hotel. It brings to mind the legend of the Wandering Jew, fated to peregrinate the world with a blintz in his breast pocket until someone says to him, "What is that, a kuhnish?"

I thought that Tucker Carlson was being lexically creative when he walked back his statement that Michael Vick should have been executed for his dogfighting sins:

"This is what happens when you get too emotional," Carlson said […] "I'm a dog lover…I love them and I know a lot about what Michael Vick did … I overspoke. I'm uncomfortable with the death penalty in any circumstance. Of course I don't think he should be executed, but I do think that what he did is truly appalling."