Klarinet Archive - Posting 000417.txt from 2002/11

From: Mark Gresham <mgresham@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Vocabulary vs. thought
Date: Mon, 25 Nov 2002 23:54:06 -0500

Stan T wrote:
>
> Whorf, along with one of his instructors, Edward
> Sapir, proposed what came to be known as the Whorf/Sapir hypothesis, which
> states basically the outlook contained in your second point; people carve
> up the world according to their language. But there are dangers to
> following this to the letter. Various peoples who have only two wrds for
> "red" for example, have no difficulty in perceiving other shades. Linguists
> today do not follow a hard line version of the hypothesis, although
> certainly words are what we think with.

My own contention, Stan, is not that "people carve up the world
according to their language" but that they "carve up their language
according to their world."
In that light, that various peoples who have two words for "red" makes
perception of a multitude of shades a non-issue; of course they can.
Rather, they perhaps find (as a culture) that only two words for "red"
are commonly necessary for most useful purposes when talking about that
perception. (Measurement measures measuring means.)

--
Mark Gresham, composer
mgresham@-----.com/
Lux Nova Press http://www.luxnova.com/
LNP Retail Webstore http://www.luxnova.com/lnpwebstore/

---------------------------------------------------------------------