LINGUIST List 3.242

Wed 11 Mar 1992

All: Bolinger; Thanks

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1. benji wald, Re: 3.200 Tributes to Dwight Bolinger
2. Larry Davidson, cowabunga

Message 1: Re: 3.200 Tributes to Dwight Bolinger

It saddened me very much to hear of Dwight's passing. I didn't know him
very well, but I was very impressed with the seemingly inexhaustable supply
of knowledge he had at his fingertips. For example, at the Stanford Child
Language Conference in 1984 I gave a paper about the acquisition of "even
though" subordinate clauses. As a side comment, I noted that the form
"although" is acquired even later, and seems to have a slightly different
meaning, implication, whatever... Dwight was in the audience. He came up
to me after the paper and told me of a paper written in 1948 for publication
but never actually published about that very subject. Later he sent me a
copy. If I remember correctly it was by Bloch (I can check, but I'm
responding to this topic without preparation -- and I clearly don't have
a memory anywhere near as impressive as Bolinger's). Those of you who
knew Bolinger well can say with authority what kind of person we have lost.
I can't say that, but based on my limited experience I realise we lost a
lot. More than we'll probably ever realise.

I am grateful to all eleven of you who replied to my query about
"cowabunga". Thank you. The clear consensus was that it originated on
the Howdy Doody Show, though few cared to speculate on why that
particular sequence of phonemes was picked.

--Larry

__________________________________________________________________
Larry Davidson
Learning Strategies
955 Massachusetts Ave Suite 182 Internet: ljdworld.std.com
Cambridge MA 02139 (617) 825-4684
__________________________________________________________________