Re: Not P but Steven Pinker's “Grammar Puss”

[Mike Jing]

Ah, it did cross my mind, since I have encountered the expression in GR, of
course.

Thanks, Neal.


On Mon, Dec 5, 2022 at 1:58 PM Neal Fultz <nfultz at gmail.com> wrote:

> Wow that was fast -
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ---------
> From: Pinker, Steven <pinker at wjh.harvard.edu>
> Date: Mon, Dec 5, 2022 at 10:55 AM
> Subject: RE: Not P but Steven Pinker's “Grammar Puss”
> To: Neal Fultz <nfultz at gmail.com>
>
>
> Dear Neal,
>
> The title was chosen by the editors of The New Republic, and is a play
> on the expression "glamour puss," referring to a consciously
> fashionable and stylish person. Feel free to post this to the list.
>
> Best,
> Steve
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Neal Fultz <nfultz at gmail.com>
> Sent: Monday, December 5, 2022 12:48 PM
> To: Pinker, Steven <pinker at wjh.harvard.edu>
> Subject: Fwd: Not P but Steven Pinker's “Grammar Puss”
>
> Dr Pinker,
>
> On the Thomas Pynchon email list, someone brought up your article
> "Grammar Puss" in the context of David Foster Wallace - we are
> wondering if you choose that title yourself or the magazine editor did
> - it's a bit more colorful than the rest of article, but on the other
> hand you're taking some shots at linguistics in the article so maybe
> they are the puss aforementioned.
>
> Thanks much,
>
> Neal Fultz
> UCLA Social Sciences
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ---------
> From: Neal Fultz <nfultz at gmail.com>
> Date: Mon, Dec 5, 2022 at 9:42 AM
> Subject: Re: Not P but Steven Pinker's “Grammar Puss”
> To: Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
> Cc: Pynchon Mailing List <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>
>
> It's online -
> https://newrepublic.com/article/77732/grammar-puss-steven-pinker-language-william-safire
>
> Not sure if headlines at TNR are chosen by authors or the editors,
> "Puss" only is in the headline.
>
> On Mon, Dec 5, 2022 at 9:19 AM Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > From DFW's "Authority and American Usage":
> >
> > p. 75–76 “Once introduced, a prescriptive . . .” = Steven Pinker,
> > “Grammar Puss” (excerpted from ch. 12 of Pinker’s book The Language
> > Instinct, Morrow, 1994), which appeared in the New Republic on 31 Jan.
> ’94 (p. 20).
> > Some of the subsequent Pinker quotations are from the NR excerpt
> > because they tend to be more compact.
> >
> > What's the meaning of the title "Grammar Puss"?
> > --
> > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>