Re: What is Shoebox?

[John Cowan <cbmvax!snark.thyrsus.com!cowan>]

la mark. clsn. cusku di'e

> It has neat ways of storing lexicons and corpuses (corpi?),

"Corpora" is correct.  I can't resist quoting a bit of Quine here:

        >Agenda< [a Latin plural, "things to be done" - jc] is treated as an
        ordinary count noun: 'There is a short agenda'.  I am now on
        the lookout for the crowning irony: a learned re-Latinization
        of >agendas< as >agendae<....

        Though >agendae< is still in merciful abeyance at last reports,
        other pseudo-Latin plurals assail us.... We have all heard
        >octopi<, and I am braced for duck-billed >platypi<.  Read ...
        >octopodes< and >platypodes<, or, excusably, >octopoda<
        and >platypoda<.  We hear >rhinoceri< and perhaps >rhinoceroi<,
        but both are wrong; the Greek lexicon rewards us with
        >rhinocerotes< [four syllables! - jc] and impels us to go out of
        our way to refer to the grim beast in the plural whenever
        occasion can be contrived.

        >Quora< and >ignorami< I have yet to encounter.... [They] are
        already Latin plurals in irrelevant ways....  >Cauci<, >doldra<,
        and >hoodla< I have likewise been spared....

--
cowan@snark.thyrsus.com         ...!uunet!cbmvax!snark!cowan
                e'osai ko sarji la lojban