Professor

Lila R. Gleitman

(1929 – 2021)

In 2008, Lila and I (Letty) were chatting at BUCLD and I told her that my high-school aged twins were ‘studying Julius Caesar’.  What I meant was that they were reading the Shakespeare play, but she assumed I meant they were reading Caesar’s Gallic Wars–in Latin.   That was Lila, always zeroing in on something language-related, and we had a good chuckle about yet another example of referential ambiguity. So when, in 2009, BUCLD held a 80th birthday celebration for Lila, I vowed to create a Latin Oration in her honor.  The result–which benefited greatly from Andrea Calabrese’s tutelage–can be seen below, followed by the translation.

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