From xod@sixgirls.org Fri Jan 28 10:32:40 2000 X-Digest-Num: 347 Message-ID: <44114.347.1867.959273825@eGroups.com> Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2000 13:32:40 -0500 (EST) From: Invent Yourself Subject: And the Eskimos have 100 words for 'Snow Cone' Taken from an article on computer languages, at http://www.gamespy.com/articles/devweek_b.shtm When you read about linguistics, the study of human languages (not computer languages), a recurring theme is: "Language is the frame of thought." In other words, our language not only defines how we communicate with each other, it also defines how we think, what concepts we are able to ponder, and how we internalize the workings of the world in our minds. I remember reading a very old article about the former USSR, where an American reporter asks, "What is the Russian word for 'fun'?"--to which a Soviet responds, "There is no such word. Fun is not a Russian concept." This is a really profound realization, that your language has such power to expand--or limit--your horizons, and define which concepts you are able to think about fluently, and which ideas are not easily ponderable. ----- Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back." -- John Maynard Keynes