tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394922.post111513740931965553..comments2024-02-19T00:54:37.767-08:00Comments on The Columnist Manifesto: Have I made a "meme" of it?Oscar Madisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558650379298098292noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394922.post-1115339312847115042005-05-05T17:28:00.000-07:002005-05-05T17:28:00.000-07:00I must flex my geekly muscles here and point out t...I must flex my geekly muscles here and point out that the term "meme" was coined by some sociologist or SF author (or some SF author decided to use it in a story after reading a sociology paper) as an analogy to describe how "thought forms" spread in a culture by relating it with how [virus] genes are spread through a population. Meme, I believe is a shortening of "memory gene" or something like that.<BR/><BR/>as far as a term that describes the mangling of a language using machine translation devices (such as Babel Fish [from a much more famous set of books vaguely related to the so-called "hit" film of the same name] or Google's translation page), what about something like <I>transmangling</I> or perhaps <I>gargling</I>?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394922.post-1115196712038540692005-05-04T01:51:00.000-07:002005-05-04T01:51:00.000-07:00How about "the Shrub meme," in honor of its finest...How about "the Shrub meme," in honor of its finest hour?Phantom Scribblerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03258384756183844406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394922.post-1115186833925552962005-05-03T23:07:00.000-07:002005-05-03T23:07:00.000-07:00I've had lots of fun playing with Googlation. I...I've had lots of <A HREF="http://semiquark.blogspot.com/2005/05/scratched-again-in-language.html" REL="nofollow">fun</A> <A HREF="http://semiquark.blogspot.com/2005/05/rosetta-stoned.html" REL="nofollow">playing</A> with Googlation. I can't come up with a worthy name, either.<BR/><BR/>- trans-translation? Clumsy.<BR/>- retranslation? Maybe. That's what Twain called it. He knew the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.<BR/>- Babel-fishing? The name identifies it with a less-popular translation service. But the name also ties it to a hit movie.<BR/><BR/>How about just "the translation meme" or "the retranslation meme?"scotthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02604634784693508470noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394922.post-1115139396759047562005-05-03T09:56:00.000-07:002005-05-03T09:56:00.000-07:00I think what your version of Googlation is current...I think what your version of Googlation is currently lacking for meme-dom is self-perpetuation.<BR/><BR/>I tried to think up with an alternative term that doesn't use Google's trade dress (and that lacks the association of Google with web searches, as in the pre-existing usage you located), but came up dry.<BR/><BR/>Among other things, I concluded that English really needs is a prefix that captures the round-trip aspect of Googlation better than trans-. Or, if it already has one, I need to know what it is.Tom Bozzohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05853926747746938925noreply@blogger.com