Quotations Weblog

PBS has a new series called WordGirl. Something about the animation reminds me of Daria, but the idea of a superhero who overcomes people with her vocabulary is appealing to me. This clip shows WordGirl overcoming an evil butcher and teaching him the meaning of the word “ally.”

Sometimes, clarity is more important than vocabulary, and I hope that WordGirl will teach that lesson as well. Educational programming is so difficult to get right and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to watch it with child’s eyes again. I learned much at the hands of multi-colored Muppets, but watching them now is painful.

As much as I like WordGirl, I don’t think I’m the one to judge. That falls squarely on the kids that she’s trying to teach.

Via: Language Log: GendergapGirl

A rare bible on loan from the Library of Congress has been stolen and it’s up to Agent Bay to retrieve it. This graphic novel is a literary lovers dream and you can read it online here:

• ///shigabooks.com/// BookHunter Scroll

This book used to be available to buy at Amazon.com, but it is no longer available. Fortunately, you can read it online. If you have been looking for a mystery that doesn’t have a mortality rate, this just might be a fun read for you.

Via: Unshelved comic strip – Book Hunter by Jason Shiga

The quote is “I pwn noobs.” It means “I own newbies.” Which means “I beat people who are inexperienced.” It usually means that you hunt down people who are inexperienced at video games and beat them, but it can also be used in a competitive sense when debating with new people in forums or even beating people down the uninitiated with other accomplishments.

Not much of a brag, really, but it’s everywhere in the leetspeak world. The question, however, is how do you pronounce “pwn”?

• Language Log: Own, pone, poon, pun, pwone, whatever

How do I pronounce it? I made the geek table laugh when I pronounced it “pawn.” I knew what the word meant and I knew that it was officially a typo of “own”, but it seemed so much more pronounceable as “pawn.” Geek table smackdown ensued.

In the end, it is insanely difficult to pronounce much of the leetspeak that is out there. We are quickly learning that written language can be just as fluid as spoken language. Making sense of both is a full time job for linguists the world over.

Language Log has a great entry analyzing the use of “happenstantially” and whether we can consider it a word or not.

• Language Log: Happenstantially

Happenstance is a word because it’s in the dictionary, but happenstantially isn’t in the dictionary. It does show up in Google searches 300 times, but the New York Times has never used it.

Does it need to be in the dictionary for it to be a word? In Google? In the New York Times? Used by your friends? What do you think?

Language Log has an excellent entry about misquotation and how easy it is to happen:

• Language Log: Standardizing non-standard language vs. careless misquotation

The Post quoted Clinton Portis (Redskins football player) as saying:

“I don’t know how anybody feels. I don’t know how anybody’s thinking. I don’t know what anyone else is going through. The only thing I know is what’s going on in Clinton Portis’s life.”

Wise quoted him as saying:

“I don’t know how nobody feel, I don’t know what nobody think, I don’t know what nobody doing, the only thing I know is what’s going on in Clinton Portis’s life.”

The word for word transcription was:

“I don’t know how nobody feel, I don’t know what nobody thinking, I don’t know what nobody going through. Only thing I know is what’s going on in Clinton Portis life.”

Which one should go in the collection? Is this a class issue? Did the Post reporter clean up the quote to make Clinton Portis sound better? Is it a simple mistake?

I have written down a lot of quotes that are in our collection. They were things that were said at important events like SXSW or other conventions. Many times, I am able to get the audio recording of the event and check the quote to correct it.

EVERY time I have gotten something wrong. EVERY TIME.

Was I trying to make them sound better? Was it a class issue? Did I clean up the quote?

No, I just am imperfect. I can’t write or type nearly as fast as people can talk.

So, what’s the answer? Which quote should go into the collection? We try to be as accurate as possible. The only problem with that is there are a lot of quotations out there that are WRONG. Everyone remembers them as wrong. Samuel Goldwyn made a living being misquoted on purpose.

In the end, quotation is hard to get right.