Collected Papers on MetalinguisticsDepartment of State, Foreign Service Institute, 1952 - 52 páginas |
Palavras e frases frequentes
agreement analogy analysis ANALYZER background basic beginning behavior BENJAMIN LEE WHORF binomial binomial formula boat called color common concept consciousness consonant contains contrast corresponding culture cyclic denote dialects duration English existence experience express fact Foreign Service Institute formless item formula French future grammar guage habitual thought hence Hopi language imaginary space Indo-European Indo-European languages intensity intuition isolated later lexeme linguistic patterns logician manifestation Martin Rosse mass nouns mathematics matter means mental Metalinguistics metaphorical metaphysics modern motion natural logic non-spatial Nootka objectified OBJECTIVE FIELD observer past phase phenomena physical plural preparing present reality refer relation result SAE AND HOPI scientific Scientific linguists sense sentence Shawnee similar simply situation snow sound southern United spatial speaker speech statement structure suffix symbolic synesthesia talking Technology Review tenses tensors things thinking tions tongues universe velocity verbs vowel Western word
Passagens conhecidas
Página 5 - It was found that the background linguistic system (in other words, the grammar) of each language is not merely a reproducing instrument for voicing ideas but rather is itself the shaper of ideas, the program and guide for the individual's mental activity, for his analysis of impressions, for his synthesis of his mental stock in trade.
Página 6 - This class seems to us too large and inclusive, but so would our class 'snow' to an Eskimo. We have the same word for falling snow, snow on the ground, snow packed hard like ice, slushy snow, wind-driven flying snow— whatever the situation may be. To an Eskimo, this all-inclusive word would be almost unthinkable; he would say that falling snow, slushy snow, and so on, are sensuously and operationally different, different things to contend with; he uses different words for them and for other kinds...
Página 5 - We are thus introduced to a new principle of relativity, which holds that all observers are not led by the same physical evidence to the same picture of the universe, unless their linguistic backgrounds are similar, or can in some way be calibrated.
Página 4 - B's agreement so readily, he will simply repeat to you, with more or less elaboration or abbreviation, what he said to B. He has no notion of the process involved. The amazingly complex system of linguistic patterns and classifications which A and B must have in common before they can adjust to each other at all, is all background to A and B.
Página 21 - We cut up and organize the spread and flow of events as we do, largely because, through our mother tongue, we are parties to an agreement to do so, not because nature itself is segmented in exactly that way for all to see.
Página 5 - ... kaleidoscopic flux of impressions which has to be organized by our minds— and this means largely by the linguistic systems in our minds. We cut nature up, organize it into concepts, and ascribe significances as we do, largely because we are parties to an agreement to organize it in this way— an agreement that holds throughout our speech community and is codified in the patterns of our language.
Página 5 - We dissect nature along lines laid down by our native languages. The categories and types that we isolate from the world of phenomena we do not find there because they stare every observer in the face; on the contrary, the world is presented in a kaleidoscopic flux of impressions which has to be organized by our minds — and this means largely by the linguistic systems in our minds.
Página 5 - This fact is very significant for modern science, for it means that no individual is free to describe nature with absolute impartiality but is constrained to certain modes of interpretation even while he thinks himself most free.
Página 34 - latering" or "durating" there seems to me to be a paramount contrast between the newest, latest instant at the focus of attention and the rest— the earlier. Languages by the score get along well with two tense-like forms answering to this paramount relation of later to earlier. We can of course construct and contemplate in thought a system of past, present, future, in the objectified configuration of points on a line. This is what our general objectification tendency leads us to do and our tense...
Página 7 - We should not have the concept of rate in the temporal sense, since, like velocity, rate introduces a mathematical and linguistic time. Of course we know that all measurements are ratios, but the measurements of intensities made by comparison with the standard intensity of a clock or a planet we do not treat as ratios, any more than we so treat a distance made by comparison with a yardstick. A scientist from another culture that used time and velocity would have great difficulty in getting us to...