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From: colin@cstr.ed.ac.uk (Colin Matheson)
Newsgroups: sci.lang,comp.cog-eng,sci.psychology,sci.philosophy.tech
Subject: Re: Computer Languages and the Sapir/Whorf hypothesis
Keywords: computer languages, Sapir/Whorf hypothesis, linguistics
Message-ID: <2846@aipna.ed.ac.uk>
Date: 22 Aug 90 09:38:56 GMT
References: <5137@munnari.oz.au> <1445@anaxagoras.ils.nwu.edu> <2674@vela.acs.oakland.edu>
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Reply-To: colin@uk.ac.ed.cstr (Colin Matheson)
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In article <2674@vela.acs.oakland.edu> rjohnson@vela.acs.oakland.edu (R o d Johnson) writes:

> I think many other linguists (though
>not all), have a gut feeling that somewhere, somehow, deep down,
>there's a kernel of truth in the idea [S/W], but no attempt to frame it as
>an empirical hypothesis has, to my knowledge, really led anywhere.

I agree with your gut feeling.  I suppose the trouble is, as with many
Linguistic issues, that the "truth" of the matter lies at such a level of
abstraction that it's difficult just to talk about it.  However, here's one
suggestion of one version of the thesis (count the hedges!).

Perhaps it's true that the act of "compressing" abstractions into concepts
represented by single lexical items or phrases has a qualitative effect on
the kinds of things it is possible to talk about.  Thus although it's
probably the case that one can express any particular concept in any
language periphrastically, it might just be that the ability to encapsulate
things in immediately transeferrable units affects the sorts of transfer
that are possible.  (Where the transfer is of information between humans.)

Is this version of the Sapir/Whorf stuff part of the original, btw?

Colin
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Colin Matheson				      | Centre for Speech Technology
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