Language Anoraks

As if to demonstrate that the term anorak is not confined to those of a trainspotting disposition and computer geeks, over at the Language Log, Mark Liberman goes to mindnumbing lengths to deconstruct a joke that was pretty weak to start with.

In Syntax Is A Disturbance In The There, he argues that Anthony Lane’s expression of disgust (Break me a fucking give) over Yoda’s weird syntax (I hope right you are), is when you get right down to it, not really an expression of Yoda’s syntax.

Mark, it’s a joke, OK? Sheesh.