Re: Re : Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

Nik Taylor wrote:
>
> Anyhoo, this author said that he has a very strong prescription for his
> eyeglasses.  Without glasses, he can hardly see at all, but they distort
> his peripheral vision.  In the same way, without language, you cannot
> think abstractly, but language can distort the way you view certain
> things, thus *indirectly* affecting your worldview.  In addition,
> language can help shape culture by making it more difficult to discuss
> some concepts, and easier to discuss others.  If a language lacked words
> for concepts like "freedom", it would be difficult to discuss them.
>
        I'm not sure about it. Before the Chinese Revolution, China completely
lacked concepts like democracy and the like, but they appeared very
quickly and the Chinese seem to have had no problem to understand them
(the Chinese for "democracy" is a compound meaning "people's power" if I
remember correctly), even better than the Chinese government expected I
think. As for concepts like "freedom", I'm not sure that any language
could lack it, and if one did, the speakers would certainly have a
compound or an expression to render this. Newspeak seems to me an
impossibility.

--
        Christophe Grandsire

        Philips Research Laboratories --  Building WB 145
        Prof. Holstlaan 4
        5656 AA Eindhoven
        The Netherlands

        Phone:  +31-40-27-45006
        E-mail: grandsir@natlab.research.philips.com