17.295 memes (to "words that catch on")

From: Humanist Discussion Group (by way of Willard McCarty willard.mccarty@kcl.ac.uk)
Date: Mon Oct 13 2003 - 05:04:42 EDT

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                   Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 17, No. 295.
           Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
                       www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/
                            www.princeton.edu/humanist/
                         Submit to: humanist@princeton.edu

             Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 09:58:32 +0100
             From: Willard McCarty <willard.mccarty@kcl.ac.uk>
             Subject: memes (to "words that catch on")

    Further on the query in Humanist 17.283, specifically on the "meme", see
    Stephen Downes, "Hacking Memes", First Monday 4.10 (4 October 1999), at
    http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue4_10/downes/.

    And further yet. Let us say that a very influential public figure, such as
    a rock star, were to use an expression utterly, unquestionably prohibited
    by the rules of transformational grammar, and suppose that it caught on,
    becoming part of the language. Would such a thing cause any problems for
    the grammar? Or is there an escape clause? Or can it be shown that the
    second supposition is without question impossible?

    Yours,
    WM

    Dr Willard McCarty | Senior Lecturer | Centre for Computing in the
    Humanities | King's College London | Strand | London WC2R 2LS || +44 (0)20
    7848-2784 fax: -2980 || willard.mccarty@kcl.ac.uk
    www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/wlm/

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