Oh, Language Log! Always a source of fun...
From today: Extensive excerpts from last year's congressional investigations into possible contraventions of the Hatch Act by Lurita Doan, now dredged up again in the wake of her resignation/dismissal...I had not realized that such an extensive grammatical discussion had been involved. Latin teachers, hold on tight...Here's the paragraph that brings in the Latin:
REP. JOHN P. SARBANES (D-MD): I hope my mother’s watching. She’s a Latin teacher, and I’m just going to take issue with your citing of the hortatory subjunctive. (Laughter.) The actual tense that was used in the statement about will not be getting promoted and so forth, that is just clearly the future tense. It’s not future perfect or future pluperfect or anything of that nature.
So really, there is a reason to learn all those terms in Latin class: for the purpose of obfuscation in the halls of Congress. But privately, of course, make sure you do know the difference between tense, mood, voice, and that stuff; or not, I guess: does "I didn't know what I was talking about" qualify as "plausible deniability"?
From a week ago, in a post entitled "PONT MAX TR POT LOL" (and citing the Epea Pteroenta blog as the source), a new explanation of the Fall of Rome is advanced: a frame of mind not unlike the one so prevalent among text-messagers..."Kids these days," and all that...
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