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<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" color="navy" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy;">Thanks Ron, Could you suggest some of the
languages which have such missing domains.<o></o></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" color="navy" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy;">Best wishes,<o></o></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" color="navy" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy;">David<o></o></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" color="navy" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy;"><o> </o></span></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><font size="2" face="Tahoma"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma;font-weight:bold;">From:</span></font></b><font size="2" face="Tahoma"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma;">
lexicographylist@yahoogroups.com [mailto:lexicographylist@yahoogroups.com] <b><span style="font-weight:bold;">On Behalf Of </span></b>Ron Moe<br>
<b><span style="font-weight:bold;">Sent:</span></b> 23 March 2006 17:18<br>
<b><span style="font-weight:bold;">To:</span></b>
lexicographylist@yahoogroups.com<br>
<b><span style="font-weight:bold;">Subject:</span></b> RE: [Lexicog] Re: Words
that are absent in particular languages</span></font><span lang="EN-US"><o></o></span></p>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:
12.0pt;"><o> </o></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><tt><font size="2" face="Courier New"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;">Ken has made an important
observation about lexical gaps. If we look at all</span></font></tt><font size="2" face="Courier New"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New";"><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">the words in a language that are used to talk
about a domain, we may find a</font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">plethora of words and phrases that cover the
domain quite nicely. But if we</font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">look for an exact match between a complex concept
in one language and the</font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">same identical concept in another language, we
will usually be disappointed.</font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">What may be of more relevance to David is when an
entire domain is missing.</font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">For instance in English we have a large domain
'thank, thankful,</font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">thanksgiving, say thanks, gratitude, grateful,
appreciate, show your</font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">appreciation, You're welcome, ingratitude, (and
many others)'. These all</font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">refer to various aspects of a cultural script.
I've heard of languages where</font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">this cultural script is missing, and therefore all
the words refering to it.</font></tt><br>
<br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">Ron Moe</font></tt><br>
<br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">-----Original Message-----</font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">From: lexicographylist@yahoogroups.com</font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">[mailto:lexicographylist@yahoogroups.com]On Behalf
Of Kenneth C. Hill</font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">Sent: Wednesday, March 22, 2006 6:02 PM</font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">To: lexicographylist@yahoogroups.com</font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">Subject: Re: [Lexicog] Re: Words that are absent
in particular languages</font></tt><br>
<br>
<br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">One has to be careful with quick assessments as to
whether a language has</font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">a term for a given concept. Hopi has long been
famous for the wrong claim</font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">(by Benjamin Lee Whorf) that it has no word for
time. In fact Hopi has</font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">many words for 'time'; two that translate as
English 'time' are taawa and</font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">qeni:</font></tt><br>
<br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">taawa (which also means 'sun' or 'day') refers to
time as some sort of</font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">entity, as in Taawa a'ni hòyta. [time very
be.moving] 'Time is really</font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">moving fast.'</font></tt><br>
<br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">qeni (which also means 'space') means 'time' in
the sense of time to do or</font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">for doing something, as in Pay naat itamungem a'ni
qeni. [well still</font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">for.us very time] 'There is still plenty of time for
us [to do it].'</font></tt><br>
<br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">Hopi also has various expressions things like 'at
that point in time', 'an</font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">occasion', 'have time for'.</font></tt><br>
<br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">Of similar interest along with the question of
lexical gaps is the fact</font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">that sometimes quite distinct concepts are
conflated under the same term.</font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">An example is the usage in English of 'hot' to
refer to temperature and to</font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">certain kinds of spiciness, the sensory effect of
chile peppers and of</font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">mustard (which in turn are very different sensory
experiences). In Spanish</font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">these concepts of temperature and of spiciness are
clearly distinct:</font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">caliente has to do with temperature and picante
has to do with the</font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">spiciness. The confusion in English is such that
some people refer to the</font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">property of chile as 'heat' and commercial
packages of foods containing</font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">chile often have little thermometer icons on them
telling how 'hot' the</font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">contents are. I suspect such icons would not work
very well in <st1><st1>Mexico</st1></st1>.</font></tt><br>
<br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">--Ken Hill</font></tt><br>
<br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">--- David Williams <david@dwdw1.com> wrote:</font></tt><br>
<br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">> --- In lexicographylist@yahoogroups.com,
"David Williams" <david@...></font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">> wrote:</font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">> ></font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">> > HI I'm researching words which some
languages omit. I'm trying to</font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">> > build up some examples. I believe, for
instance, that in Swedish</font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">> there</font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">> > is no direct counterpart for 'mind'.</font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">> > If anyone has any examples I'd be
delighted to hear them.</font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">> > cheers</font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">> > DW</font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">> ></font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">> Many thanks to those who have offered
suggestions. Just to clarify,</font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">> I'm particularly interested in the abscence
of words which by their</font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">> omisision might reflect the culture of the
language group. I remeMber</font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">> reading many yers ago of a tribe who saw the
ability to deceive as a</font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">> virtue and their language refelcted this.
This might well have been an</font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">> apocryphal tale, but it's this avenue I'm
looking at.</font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">> best wishes to all,</font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">> DavidW</font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">></font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">></font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">></font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Courier New">></font></tt><br>
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