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AFAICT, this (the punmaking, and language games in general) is actually a prime attribute of PL researchers, at least in several major PL subdisciplines. It's
by saidajigumi 12y ago
AFAICT, this (the punmaking, and language games in general) is actually a prime attribute of PL researchers, at least in several major PL subdisciplines. It's been awhile since I've cracked open the POPL proceedings or the like, but ... wow, just wow.
One of my favorites was a (peer-reviewed, published!) paper with this gem of a footnote in the first column: This work supported in part by cinder blocks.
- long 12y agoI've noticed this as well. Why is PL so punny? Related question: are there other interesting quirks of various CS subfields?
- harryjo 12y agoBecause they are language professionals, who enjoy studying languages and packing as much power as they can into a language -- computer or human.
- long 12y agoIn my experience, linguists are not terribly punny, though -- what accounts for this difference? (FWIW, my first-hand experience has mainly been with psycholinguists and functional programming folks)
- taejo 12y agoLinguists are language analysts whereas programming language people are language creators; perhaps this explains why the later create more wordplay?
- krylon 12y agoI am not sure if this applies, but in my experience, presenting a dry, more or less theoretical subject matter in a humorous way makes it substantially easier for me to stay focused. Also, as somebody else already said, if you are designing languages professionally, you probably get to appreciate puns on a whole new level.