Study of obscure Amazon tribe sheds new light on how language affects perception (fwd)

[Matthew Ward]

Good point, Don.  I was reading an article by a linguist studying
Australian Aboriginal languages who referred to a textbook on nuclear
physics, if I remember correctly, that had been translated into a
certain Aboriginal language.  For many indigenous languages, the
resources, will, or perceived need to do such translations is lacking,
but that doesn't mean that these translations cannot be done.

People tend to get very hung-up on lexicon when they get the idea that
you somehow cannot express certain thoughts in certain languages.  The
problem is, most of the pretty much infinite number of ideas that the
human brain is capable of thinking up don't have vocabulary items to go
along with them.  For every concept that has a specific term, there are
many that are expressed by combinations of words.  In other words, most
of the meaning that we make with language is not expressed by single
words, but by putting words together.  What I am writing here is a good
example:  there is not a single word for the idea I am expressing, but
that doesn't stop me from expressing it.    This is one reason why human
language is so flexible:  when a vocabularly item is lacking, one can
paraphrase or otherwise explain.

Of course, there are concepts that are difficult to understand because
of people's cultural backgrounds, but it's not a case of people being
unable to think certain thoughts because their languages lack the "right
resources," as the original article unfortunately put it.



Donald Z. Osborn wrote:

>I'm not sure what the late Senegalese scholar Cheick Anta Diop would do with
>regard to language were he were alive today, but a half-century ago he made a
>point of translating an explanation of the theory of relativity as well as
>several literary passages from European languages into Wolof (published in
>Présence Africaine in 1955). I don't speak that language, but as I understand
>it he was not relying on borrowed words but rather using terms existing in
>Wolof. Still an interesting example and point of reference when discussions
>such as this come up.
>
>Don Osborn
>Bisharat.net
>
>
>
>Quoting Matthew Ward <mward at LUNA.CC.NM.US>:
>
>
>
>>I would suspect that if such words exist in tribal languages, they were
>>recently coined or borrowed--after all, many of them are relatively new
>>concepts even in the cultures which they originated in.  Words for these
>>terms exist in all the languages that I speak, but many are relatively
>>recent coinaged created to deal with new concepts.  The important thing
>>is that both languages and cultures are flexible, and can accomodate new
>>concepts as needed.
>>
>>
>>
>[ . . . ]
>
>
>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ilat/attachments/20040827/c027db93/attachment.htm>