We've discussed lots of nice examples in class recently, including:
There probably isn't a god
(The controversy surrounding the atheists who have advertised on buses around the UK)
'So. Where were we?'
(Jonathan Ross's first words on his first show after his suspension from the BBC. We also discussed the use of the suffix '-gate', with many commentators referring to this as 'sachsgate', and it also reminded me of Bernard Levin beginnning his daily column in the Times after the paper had been shut down by a strike for over a year with the word 'Moreover' - something a student told me about a long time ago)
And there was an excellent example of pragmatic inference and its absence in the discussion of Paul Dirac by Graham Farmelo on Start The Week on the 19th of January (if you get the audio file, it begins around 13 minutes in):
Start the Week - 19 January 2009
Dirac was an eminent scientist ('one of the greatest physicists of the twentieth century') who made major contributions to quantum physics, relativity and other areas. He was also autistic. Farmelo told us what happened after a talk he gave. The chair asked if there were any questions and the first person with their hand up said (something like):
'I didn't understand the equation on the top right'.
Dirac was silent for quite a while. He often pondered silently for a while so people were patient. After a few minutes, the chair asked if he would answer the question and Dirac replied:
'That wasn't a question. It was a statement.'
B-)
