Re: Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

Nik Taylor Wrote:

>"Thomas R. Wier" wrote:
>> I think part of the problem with understanding the Sapir-Whorf
>> dilemma is that culture and language are so often interconnected
>
>Which is why I said a while back that they aren't really separable.
    I Agree. And looking at this from the point of view of a single person
trying to learn a foreign lang, it seems to me that it is also important
to take into account how "deeply" one is into the (foreign) lang one is
speaking; i.e. how many meaningful associations one considers
as one chooses the right word (and maybe even the right grammatical
construction) to express what one wants to say.
    For example, beginners in a lang are notorious for _not_ thinking
in the lang. They tend to learn one word that more or less equates with
a word they know. When they talk, they tend to think in their native lang
and translate word for word into the new lang. No foreign culture or
foreign thoughts needed.
    But if one continues to go "deeper" into a lang, one cannot avoid
learning some of the culture as one learns to choose words according to
finer and finer shades of meaning or styles of appropriateness. (Or, indeed,
not making distinctions where one's native lang-culture might do so.) These
differences are culture-based and insofar as they differ from one's native
culture and lang, in order to speak really fluently at depth, one has no
other
choice but to think in terms of the (new) distinctions. One's thinking is
thus
guided into channels different from what one may be used to.
    Perhaps the extreme example here would be poets who learn a foreign
lang.
I recently heard a radio program featuring published poets from various
countries who came to live in Israel. Some could write poetry in Hebrew
and some couldn't. All had a basic mastery over the lang; but only those
who delved deeper into the culture and thought in terms of it, considered
themselves competent to write poetry in Hebrew.

Dan Sulani
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likehsna rtem zuv tikuhnuh auag inuvuz vaka'a.

A word is an awesome thing.