[Ads-l] Media request (Business Insider) about language and nature

[Baker, John]

Note that the example given by the reporter is a striking correlation:  In parts of the country where there is relatively more risk from wildfires, bioluminescent winged beetles are known as “fireflies,” while in parts of the country where there is relatively more risk from lightning, they are known as “lightning bugs.”  This could, of course, be coincidence, but it also seems reasonable that people are subconsciously reminded of the locally more prominent risk when referring to these insects, though neither fire nor lightning is involved in any way.

I don’t think the reporter is asking about the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, though no doubt he would be interested in it if it is relevant in some way.


John Baker


From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Galen Buttitta
Sent: Tuesday 24 July 2018 3:08 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Media request (Business Insider) about language and nature

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Does he mean Sapir-Whorf or is he asking about social/societal aspects (E.G. “slim Jim”, “lazy Susan”, “Watergate”)?

> On Jul 24, 2018, at 11:16, Cohen, Gerald Leonard <gcohen at MST.EDU> wrote:
>
> This morning I received the request below from Mark Abadi of
>
> Business Insider, and with his permission I now forward it to
>
> ads-l. Can anyone on our listserv provide him any information?
>
>
> In a follow-up message he clarified:
>
> Essentially, my questions are:
> - In what ways does the natural world influence our language, on a
> dialectal level to specific words and phrases?
> - Do any other examples come to mind of the environment seeming to
> dictate what we call something?
> - Why is it important to know about the interplay between language
> and nature?
>
> I'm sure any assistance would be very gratefully received.
>
> Gerald Cohen
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Mark Abadi <mabadi at businessinsider.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, July 24, 2018 9:29 AM
> To: Cohen, Gerald Leonard
> Subject: Request for comment on a dialect map — Business Insider
>
> Hi there Gerald, I'm a reporter with Business Insider, and one of my areas of coverage is language and linguistics.
>
> A recent tweet<https://twitter.com/Chasin_Jason/status/1018209864416362497<https://twitter.com/Chasin_Jason/status/1018209864416362497>> from meteorology researcher Jason Keeler caught my attention — he compared a map of where Americans use the terms "firefly" vs. "lightning bug" to a map showing wildfire and lightning-strike activity in the USA. Interestingly, there is strong overlap between wildfire country and 'firefly' country, as well as lightning country and 'lightning bug' country.
>
> I wanted to use Keeler's tweet to explore the interplay between language and nature, and wanted to know if you could offer a comment on the map. Basically, I'd like to ask about the ways the natural world has influenced our language, perhaps with some other specific examples, and what we can learn from them.
>
> Would you be available for a brief phone chat, no more than five or six minutes, sometime today? Let me know and we can figure out a time that works. Alternatively, if you know have someone in mind who you think is well-suited for a topic like this, feel free to send them my way. Hope to hear from you!
>
> Best,
>
>
> Mark Abadi
>
> Strategy reporter
>
>
> [https://docs.google.com/uc?export=download&id=1Sn9T_3XgKeR6F-qeusXInzzUfdaFEk_m&revid=0B_22AlI77aExWVVkMzFWczF3L0c4T0hKcFoxdU52amg2bUdRPQ<https://docs.google.com/uc?export=download&id=1Sn9T_3XgKeR6F-qeusXInzzUfdaFEk_m&revid=0B_22AlI77aExWVVkMzFWczF3L0c4T0hKcFoxdU52amg2bUdRPQ>]
>
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