It’s always a comfort to learn a new bit of terminology, especially when a favorite bit of lyric is attached, and thus further clarified. Today’s case in point, from Language Log, invokes a song that’s been warming my little heart these 40 years, Michael Flanders’ and Donald Swann‘s Madeira M’Dear. If you don’t know it (and I can see by the look of you that some of you don’t, as Flanders was wont to say), a tiny fragment (but without the delicious syllepsis) is available via Amazon. Or you could watch a version, via Eric Storm and kwego:

While you’re at it, if you don’t already know The Gnu Song, here’s your opportunity, though once again not at the hands of the Original Authors.