Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Zimmer delivers again: Chomsky qua heavyweight

This just in from the ever reliable Ben Zimmer, under the subject line "So that's why they call him a heavyweight":
Mr. V,
Didn't want you to miss this choice quote in today's New York Times (here) about linguistics heavyweight Noam Chomsky ...

"Listening to Noam Chomsky," said a psychologist in her 50s, "always turns me on."
--Ben
Now, that is brilliant. (In sad contrast, I read straight through that without making this connection at all.)

You'd love to know how Chomsky reacts to the quote, right?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

One of my favorite movies to show in class is "Secret of the Wild Child", not because of the gripping story of Genie, but because of the line that always makes me smile (I can hear Stacy Keach's voice even now): "Chomsky and Lenneberg rocked the field. They were hot. Linguistics was in."

Let's hope it still is.

Mr. Verb said...

Yeah, at worst, we're getting to a point where linguistics can be hot again ...