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James Nicoll

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James Davis Nicoll (born March 18, 1961[1]) of Kitchener, Ontario, is a former role-playing game store owner, a freelance game and speculative fiction reviewer, and a Usenet personality. Nicoll also works as a first reader for the Science Fiction Book Club, reviewing science fiction and fantasy books.[2]

"The Purity of the English Language"

Nicoll is known for the following epigram first written in 1990, which over the years has been misattributed to other individuals including Booker T. Washington and a nineteenth-century painter also named James Nicoll:

The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.[3]

The original post had "riffle" for "rifle", however, a followup acknowledged that had been a spelling error.[4]

References in print

Some writers who are interested in languages, language change, and words including professor of rhetoric and communication design Randy Harris[5], and amateur linguists Jeremy Smith[6], Richard Lederer[7], and Anu Garg[8] have referenced Mr. Nicoll's quote in their published work.

References online

Professional linguists who have referenced the quote online include Professor of Linguistics Mark Liberman of the University of Pennsylvania and Language Log[9]; Associate Professor of Linguistics Suzanne Kemmer of Rice University[10], who also posted her research into the quote at the LINGUIST mailing list[11]; and Second Language Acquisition Ph.D. student Rong Liu[12]. There are also amateur philologists who have used the quote, including the above-mentioned Anu Garg of the English language site Wordsmith.org[13], journalist Suw Charman[14], and journalist Vale White.[15]

Nicoll Events

Nicoll is known in the science fiction community for having had a number of life-and-or-limb-threatening events happen to him (and to those in his family), and for casually recounting the sequences of near-fatal events with a dry, understated wit which has made the term "Nicoll Event" a by-word on SF-related newsgroups.[16]

This, combined with the number of stray cats he has rescued, inspired author Jo Walton to write a poem about him in 2002.[17]

Other influence

Nicoll is credited[18] with coining the phrase "Brain Eater" which is supposed to "get"[19] writers (especially, but not limited to, of SF) to describe a decline in quality of their works later in their careers, and a simultaneous increase in focus on the writers' obsessions and eccentric opinions. Writers suggested to have fallen victim to the Brain Eater include James P. Hogan and Larry Niven.

After winning the 2006 Locus Award for his novella Missile Gap, Charles Stross thanked him, stating that Nicoll "came up with the original insane setting — then kindly gave me permission to take his idea and run with it."[20]

Nicoll-Dyson Laser

James Nicoll was the first person known to propose the Nicoll-Dyson Laser concept where the satellites of a Dyson Swarm act as a phased array laser emitter capable of delivering their energy to a planet-sized target at a range of millions of light years.[21]

While the particular concept of the Nicoll-Dyson Laser is new, the general idea of collecting the energy of the sun and concentrating it into weapon is not. E. E. Smith first used the idea in the Lensman series when the Galactic Patrol developed the sunbeam (in Second Stage Lensmen).

References

  1. ^ Silver, Steven. "SF Birthday Calendar: March". Retrieved 2007-05-15.
  2. ^ Wheeler, Andrew (2006-11-20). "SFBC's Top 50 Books List Goes Walkabout". Science Fiction Book Club. Retrieved 2007-05-20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ Nicoll, James (1990-05-15). "The King's English". Newsgroup: rec.arts.sf-lovers. 1990May15.155309.8892@watdragon.waterloo.edu. {{cite newsgroup}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ Nicoll, James (1990-05-20). "The King's English". Newsgroup: rec.arts.sf-lovers. 1990May20.184335.4443@watdragon.waterloo.edu. {{cite newsgroup}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ Harris, Randy (2004). Voice Interaction Design: Crafting the New Conversational Speech Systems. San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann. p. 55. ISBN 1558607684.
  6. ^ Smith, Jeremy (2005). Bum Bags and Fanny Packs: A British-American, American-British Dictionary. New York: Carrol & Graf. p. 164. ISBN 0786717025.
  7. ^ Lederer, Richard (2003). A Man of My Words: Reflections on the English Language. New York: St. Martin's Press. p. 266. ISBN 0312317859.
  8. ^ Garg, Anu (2005). Another Word A Day: An All-New Romp through Some of the Most Unusual and Intriguing Words in English. New York: Wiley. p. 111. ISBN 0471718459.
  9. ^ Liberman, Mark (2005-10-24). "The wordiness of English". Language Log. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); "88 English words from snow". Language Log. 2003-12-07. Retrieved 2007-05-17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. ^ Kemmer, Suzanne (2001-10-23). "The English Language: Past and Present". Rice University. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); "Words in English: Structure, History, Use (course Web site for Linguistics/English 215)". Rice University. 2006-02-28. Retrieved 2007-05-17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  11. ^ Kemmer, Suzanne (2002-02-20). "James D. Nicoll quote - mystery solved". LINGUIST list. Retrieved 2007-05-17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  12. ^ Liu, Mike (2005-10-03). "Presentation on Morphology, for the course INDV 101-Language" (Microsoft PowerPoint). University of Arizona. Retrieved 2007-05-17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  13. ^ Garg, Anu (1999-12-06). "A.Word.A.Day archives, see Tabula Rasa". A.Word.A.Day. Wordsmith.org. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); "A.Word.A.Day archives, see Cumshaw". 2002-11-04. Retrieved 2007-05-17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  14. ^ Charman, Suw (2005-01-03). "Re: The purity of the English language". Chocolate and Vodka. Retrieved 2007-05-17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  15. ^ White, Vale (2004-10-13). "Words, words, words depurify". Southern Utah University Journal. Retrieved 2007-05-17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  16. ^ Soukup, Cally. "Cally Soukup's List of Nicoll events". Retrieved 2007-05-18.
  17. ^ Walton, Jo (2002). "James Nicoll". Retrieved 2007-05-19.
  18. ^ Wilson, Gareth (2002-08-14). "Quick thought on the collapse of the Roman Empire". Newsgroup: soc.history.what-if. 3D5A21D6.DDC8D0E2@ext.canterbury.ac.nz. {{cite newsgroup}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  19. ^ Nicoll, James (1997-09-12). "Fire Upon the Deep and Way Station". Newsgroup: rec.arts.sf.written. EGEGux.EK3@novice.uwaterloo.ca. {{cite newsgroup}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  20. ^ Stross, Charles (2007-06-17). "Brief Announcement". {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  21. ^ Nicoll, James (2005-03-20). "Re: A Moon base is too far; an asteroid ship better alternative:)". Newsgroup: sci.space.tech. d1kl0p$c9q$1@reader1.panix.com. {{cite newsgroup}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

See also

Wikiquote has quotations related to James Nicoll.
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