Re: A question and introduction

Quoting Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...>:

> Andy Canivet wrote:
> > It also doesn't seem far fetched that if a culture lived according to a
> > particular philosophy long enough that it might influence their use of
> > language.
>
> A great example is pronoun usage.  Modern English has just I/we,
> you/(various dialectal forms), he/she/it/they.  Distinctions of gender
> in the third person singular, distinctions of number in 1st and 3rd
> persons (and 2nd person in informal usage).  But, no distinction of
> social class or anything.
[Jumping in medias res here]

But is that really what we mean when we say "philosophy" here?
I was under the impression that what we've been discussing here
was abstract philosophies about the way the universe works, like
"Is the speaker acting according to a Kantian Categorical Imperative?"
and suchlike abstruse theorizing.  Surely you would not claim that
sociocultural stratification constitutes a "philosophy" in this
sense.

=====================================================================
Thomas Wier          "...koruphàs hetéras hetére:isi prosápto:n /
Dept. of Linguistics  mú:tho:n mè: teléein atrapòn mían..."
University of Chicago "To join together diverse peaks of thought /
1010 E. 59th Street   and not complete one road that has no turn"
Chicago, IL 60637     Empedocles, _On Nature_, on speculative thinkers

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