Friday, March 30, 2018

my penultimate slice for #sol18

…starting (as is oft my wontl) from the end and working backwards: once settled on the word "penultimate" in the footer, I looked for images, visual prompts. Penultimate, a  June 12, 2011, Language Log post by Mark Liberman came up, tagged Linguistics in the comics, it includes panels about students and a teacher using the word -- and 78 comments. I'll share a few panels with commentary. You're on your own for the rest.

Sometimes more is less. In Frazz for 6/6/2011, Caulfield is frustrated that Mrs. Olsen is among those who think that the first syllable of penultimate is some kind of emphatic particle



Mrs. Olsen is apparently not as dumb as she sometimes seems — though the direction of the difference is always in doubt:



Lagniappe: finding Language Log again. Have another Frazz and Mrs Olsen, Syntactic analysis and folding fitted sheets on me -- or just go straight to the archive for "Linguistics in the comics".


penultimate slice of pizza

Two Writing Teachers host a weekly Tuesday and an annual March Slice of Life Story Challenge (SOLSC), of which this is the 11th iteration. During March, participants write and share daily blog posts on the TWT blog; then comment on three or more blog posts by other participants. Writing, sharing and commenting, are central both challenges. Read more from this penultimate day. 

4 comments:

  1. The pizza helped me sort it all out!
    BTW, I love Frazz. Interesting slice today- truly UNIQUE!

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    1. Thanks, so do I, love Franz, I mean. Used to follow it, lost track, so this was another happy re-discovery for me too.

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  2. Just sent this to my brother-in-law! He educated me on the accurate meaning of this word. Thanks for the chuckle!

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    1. Antepenultimate is word sibling in the family. For some reason, I think of "antebellum" whenever I see it and then about a trip to the Phronistery for an ante-riff. Make that a penny ante riff...

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