September 14, 2006

All-embracing linguification


Michael Pollan, The Omnivore's Dilemma (Penguin, 2006), p. 6, cites an all-embracing linguification:

"The whole of nature," wrote the English author William Ralph Inge, "is a conjugation of the verb to eat, in the active and passive."

I eat.  You eat. ...  I ate.  You ate. ... ...  I am eaten [aiee!].  You are eaten. ...  I was eaten.  You were eaten. ... ... I have been being eaten. ... ...

The lyrics need work, dude.

zwicky at-sign csli period stanford period edu

Posted by Arnold Zwicky at September 14, 2006 08:45 PM