Re: Fictional auxlangs as artlangs (was Re: Poll)

Den 17. des. 2008 kl. 17.36 skrev Paul Kershaw:

> I'm not entirely certain, myself. I would think that Sapir-Whorf
> might predict that a fully fluent multilingual would have different
> concept structures in each of their languages.
Possibly. And concept structures isn't all there is to it. The
different ways various categories are treated might well influence
thinking as well. In translating from English I often notice how
different the two cultures perceive time. And I often need to
reformulate sentences where, in English, inanimate objects perform
actions. It is much easier to grasp or even be aware of distinctions
that are marked in your own language than other ones. And it has
often startled me the way biglots or polyglots seem to take on a
whole different personality when they switch from one language to
another. That may be related to my prejudices about the various
nationalities, but I'm not sure if this will account for the whole
effect.

> I've heard many cases of someone who is fluent in two languages
> saying, "I don't know how to say it in English" not because they
> didn't have the vocabulary but because the vocabulary didn't
> accurately reflect the concept structure. After all, that's how
> some loan words drift over: Schadenfreude being an obvious example.
> Certainly English has the concepts of joy and misery, but it's
> characteristically German to combine those feelings.
We have this word in Norwegian, too, borrowed from German, no doubt,
but spelt "skadefryd". And here the meaning is the joy over the
misery of others. I think it is the same in German, actually.

LEF

Reply