LINGUIST List 4.712

Fri 17 Sep 1993

Disc: Linguistics In The News

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Directory

1. Randy Allen Harris, FYI: "The Talk Show"
2. , Linguistics in the News

A very good science journalist on Canadian radio, Jay Ingram, has just
finished a series of programs popularizing linguistics, called "The Talk
Show". It covers topics such as deep historicism, Genie, Klingon, and
linguistic extinction. There are four shows in the series: "The search
for the mother tongue", "Born to talk", "Native tongues", and "Talk of
tomorrow". Tapes and transcripts are available. For more information,
contact CBC Radio--The Talk Show / P.O. Box 500, Station A / Toronto ON M5W
1E6 / Canada. I have no connection with Jay Ingram or CBC Radio.

Randy Allen Harris rahawatarts.uwaterloo.ca
Rhetoric and Professional Writing 519 885-1211, x5362
English, U of Waterloo FAX: 519 884-8995
Waterloo ON, CANADA, N2L 3G1

Has anyone else read the piece in The Atlantic about this guy in
Geneva who is a wiz at doing computations and at picking up
languages and accents (or so they claim)? What bothered me
is that the article, written by a physicist, does not quote this
idiot savant's speculations, if any, about mathematics or the theory
of computation but dwells on his speculations about historical
linguistics (complete with the usual derogatory references to
the professional historical linguists).