Unintentional Self-Referential Jocularity
April 11th, 2008 | Filed under Academic Adventures, Cog Sci, Quickies“By eschewing obfuscatory verbosity of locutional rendering, the circumscriptional appelations are excised.” [sic, emphasis mine]
“By eschewing obfuscatory verbosity of locutional rendering, the circumscriptional appelations are excised.” [sic, emphasis mine]
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2008-04-11 at 1.12 pm
How on earth could that be unintentional? Anyone clever enough to construct a sentence like that will know it’s obfuscated.
My mother used to have a framed embroidery piece (circa 1980) which read:
ESCHEW OBFUSCATION
This has been around (and ironic) for a while.
2008-04-12 at 5.41 am
devin: you know, I wish I could say this is intentional. But trust me, if you had the paper between your hands, you’d have your doubt yourself. I don’t think linguists are a very funny bunch at large (from reading their research papers at least).
If it is, then kudos to the authors for not only exhibiting some humour in an otherwise absolutely humorless 50-page paper, but also managing to hide it so well that it didn’t cross my mind 2 seconds it might be on purpose.