"linguistic relativism"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Interesting discussion by Adam Gopnik in the New Yorker (May 26, pp. 36ff)
of the new _Dictionary of Untranslatables_.

Serious peeve: Adam thinks "linguistic determinism" is called (even in its
strongest forms) "linguistic relativism."

But that's OK! In their recent review of Tolkien's translation of _Beowulf_
(can't recall the reviewer's name) the old Yorker noted that _Pearl_ and
_Sir Gawain and the Green Knight_ are both written in "Old English."  It
also seemed quite significant to the writer that Wulfie's battle with
Grendel's subaqueous, superstrong, armor-plated, demonic horror-mom "shows
a man killing a woman."


JL

--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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