[Lexicog] Swedish language DOES have words for "mind"

[maxwell at LDC.UPENN.EDU]

> Yes, Swedish language DOES have words for "mind"

...which (along with the earlier examples from Hopi) I think shows that
it's very difficult to say that a language lacks this or that term, beyond
the obvious: Amazonian languages lack terms for ice or snow, pre-contact
European languages lacked terms for maize, pre-contact American languages
lacked a term for horses or domestic cats, etc.  (At least I think these
cases are obvious.)

And on the other hand, there is very often no precise cross-language
equivalent for a word.  And this is almost certain to be the case if
you're looking for a single word in language X that covers all the senses
of a word W in language Y.

Moral: when someone says language X lacks a term for T, be skeptical! 
They are probably just unfamiliar with language X.



 
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