Semantic Theory, Thursday morning. Prof. Pinkal is up at the board explaining how linguists seek unicorns and how difficult this is for semanticians.
I sneeze. Hervé turns around and says “gesundheit.” Prof. Pinkal turns around and says, “Hmm? What was that?”.. Akira looks up, nods his head, makes a sneezing gesture and says, “Ja, ja, gesundheit. Das ist richtig..”
The class bursts into laughter as I blush, hide my face, and giggle.
It just wouldn’t be the same without Akira.
I think that Prof. Pinkal just got so used to the English speaking majority in class that he wasn’t able to parse “Gesundheit” on the fly anymore. Next time, someone should say something containing “bless you”. And in order to make things more parsable, that person should also add a subject (what about the unicorns or Akira?).
Anyway, “The unicorns bless you, Jennifer.” 🙂
I thought Herve said “bless you” and Akira tried to translate it to German for Prof. Pinkal……
Yes, perhaps Akira was translating, but Hervé said ‘gesundheit’ and in any case, the context was not that Pinkal did not understand ‘bless you’ or whatever it may have been, but that he did not hear what was said.., which was why Nadiya had to explain it explicitly: “Yes, Jennifer sneezed and Hervé said ‘gesundheit’..” Oh la la.