Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site rayssd.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!eagle!allegra!rayssd!asa
From: asa@rayssd.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: American languages
Message-ID: <230@rayssd.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 8-Nov-83 16:20:05 EST
Article-I.D.: rayssd.230
Posted: Tue Nov  8 16:20:05 1983
Date-Received: Fri, 11-Nov-83 02:49:59 EST
Organization: Raytheon Co., Portsmouth RI
Lines: 16


Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: American languages
References: <1013@uvacs.UUCP>

The reason Hopi was cited by Whorf in his book was because it lacked
separate verb forms for distinguishing between time and growth. The
Hopi verbs only express whether or not the thing referred to is visible
above the ground, has reached a certaoin height, or some other aspect
of growth, as I remember it. This is a very interesting contrast with
English. What if you had to say "It will become visible tomorrow", instead
of "It will happen tomorrow"? Facts such as these, and the observed 
corollaries in behavior, as in the case of the "empty" gasoline drums, led
to the Sapir-Whorf "Relativity Hypothesis" for languages in general. I must
caution that I may have the Hopi language confused with Navaho, which
Whorf also cited.