Information

[Koontz John E]

On Fri, 13 Dec 2002, David Kaufman wrote:
> ...
> I hark back to Whorf's example from Hopi in
> which he says that the English version of rehpi, "flashed," must be
> translated into English as "It flashed" or "a light flashed" as if
> there is a separate entity doing the flashing, even though the English
> "it," "light," and "flash" are one and the same.  And this is only
> because we MUST have a noun and a verb for a "complete" English
> sentence, forced by English grammar, which is obviously not true in
> many of these Native languages. ...

For that matter an independent subject pronominal is not required in some
European languages.  I'm not sure that says anything much about the
conceptualization of the activity.

JEK