[lit-ideas] The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis -- Refuted?
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 21 Aug 2004 20:42:43 EDT
In a message dated 8/21/2004 6:52:22 PM Eastern Standard Time,
Robert.Paul@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
like a, well, more like a...' And surely if someone understood the
English unpacking of either the French or the German expression, she would
have
the requisite concept, for which there is no real _name_ in English.
---
This relates to the Sapir Whorf hypothesis, elaborated by Sapir and Whorf.
They noted that the Native Americans had different concepts from the English
(colonists). A case in point:
There is an island off the coast of Connecticut, where these native
Americans lived, which (the island) they called,
"Massaucunnock"
-- When Dutch explorers were surveying the area, they 'translated' that as
Valcon Igland
-- currently "Faulkner's Island".
(officially belongs to the township of Guilford).
Literally, in the Native American language, "Massaucunnock" means "place of
fish hawks" (R. Douglas Lightgow, Native American Place Names of Connecticut,
Applewood Books, p. 16).
Some local historians have suggested that the 'fish hawk' referred to may be
the 'osprey' (pandion halaetus). Local ornithologists noted that while it
_looks_ like a 'falcon', the osprey is not really one, so this shows that
Native
Americans did not have any real concept of what they were talking about
('talking' literally, since, same critics observe, the Native Americans did not
have _written_ records of what they spoke).
Cheers,
JL
------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
Other related posts:
- » [lit-ideas] The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis -- Refuted?
