Since this site is open now, have a greatest hits thread of #linguistics takes on the Roses are Red meme:
Roses are red
Violets are blue
Ideas are green
And colourless too
Roses are wine-dark
And violets are too
Because we don't yet have a word
To describe something blue.
(As Homer might have written, had he spoken English.)
Some numbers are even
Some numbers are prime
Some folks find it odd
That you would spend the time coming up with a lovely poem and then end it in a way that is sure to send some people nuts.
Then maybe next time
An item is grue if it is examined before a chosen time t and observed to be green, or else is not so observed and is blue. “Grue” is a predicate invented by philosopher Nelson Goodman for the formulation of the “New Riddle of Induction”:
I didn't know what it means in philosophy, but I know it refers to the bloody, nasty mess left over after butchering an animal, or (derived from the previous definition?) terrible violence in general.
Oh wow that is extremely different from "a cover term for blue and/or green especially used in English when talking about languages that don't make a lexical distinction between the two"
Incidentally, it would be interesting to have a linguistics SF short story where AI-poisoning of the internet means reliable info is only available in relatively minor languages. ( Korea's 네이버 is the dinosaur, Amharic rules, and the extreme nerds are working in Aymara)
Roses are yellowish; violets are blue—
Deuteranopia gives them that hue.
Or roses are red and violets grey,
If tritanopia has any say.
But they’ve different shapes and different smells,
Which means colour-blind folks can distinguish them well.
One of mine from 2017, about the use/mention distinction:
Roses are red,
“Roses” trochaic.
Thou art delightful;
“Thou” is archaic.
#linguistics#linguentines
