Talk:Kató Lomb

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I wonder if Ms Lomb is indeed a linguist. She is a polyglot, but this doesn't make her a linguist. There is no indication in the article that she ever studied language or languages in a scholarly way.--Tamas 18:56, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

It's the ambiguity of English which perhaps could be eliminated. In her Hungarian books, she definitely names herself a "lingvista" (someone whose hobby is languages, cf. philatelist etc) rather than a "nyelvész" (a linguist as a scholar). In English, there doesn't seem to be a more exact term for the former concept so it's a bit misleading indeed. However, if you can find a good term, feel free to insert it! Adam78 21:43, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

That's the trouble, I can't. Linguist in English can indeed mean "lingvista" as well. Maybe we should just leave it as it is for the time being.--Tamas 12:40, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Linguist

The problem is the English word, due to its original meaning which is indeed "a person who can speak foreign languages" or a professional working with languages. Notice for example how FBI and CIA are always complaining about lack of linguists (see for example here: http://www.meforum.org/article/754). You can be sure they don't mean people who can perform syntactic analysis, but rather people who have really mastered the critical foreign languages.

—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 82.119.123.147 (talk • contribs) 12:09, 3 April 2006.