ALPHABETICAL BRAIN™ VOCABULARY HUMANIST SECULAR SCIENCE STAR JOHN McWHORTER May 30, 2021 LANGUAGE HOAX: Why the world looks the same in any language by John H. McWhorter. Oxford University Press, 2014 (i-xx, 182 pages) Quote = "McWhorter... celebrates the diversity of languages and the cultures that speak them in this persuasive rebuttal to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, first advanced in the field of linguistics in the 1930s. That hypothesis holds that language channels the way a culture views the world... that Russians, who have two specific words for blue, are more sensitive than other cultures to nuances of color; or that the Amazonian Piraha tribe, whose language has no numbers, do not know how to count... This book challenges a number of Whorfian studies and the cultural assumptions extrapolated from them... and shows how improbable it is that a culture's language is encoded with its worldview." (Paraphrased by webmaster from Publisher's Weekly Review). Quote = "McWhorter writes with liveliness and enthusiasm, noting: 'All languages are, in their own ways, as utterly awesome as creatures, snowflakes, and Haydn string quartets'..." (Paraphrased by webmaster from Publisher's Weekly Review). BOOK OUTLINE INTRODUCTION (ix-xx) 1) STUDIES HAVE SHOWN (3-29) 2) HAVING IT BOTH WAYS? (30-58) 3) AN INTERREGNUM — On culture (59-72) 4) DISSING THE CHINESE (73-103) 5) WHAT'S THE WORLDVIEW FROM ENGLISH? (104-135) 6) RESPECT FOR HUMANITY (136-168) NOTES (169-174) INDEX (173-182) Arabic Be Black English Chinese. See also Mandarin Chinese complexity Colors English Evidential markers Gender markers Grammar Greek Hebrew If Lakoff, George Language Log “language shapes thought” theory. See also Whorfianism Latin Mandarin Chinese. See also Chinese complexity of Mathematics Native American languages. See also specific languages Navajo Necessity as irrerelevant to language development Old English Orwell, George Papua New Guinea Patterns of language Persian Plurals Prefixes Pronouns Psycholinguistics Russian Spanish Suffixes Syntax. See also Vocabulary Tense markers Thai Through the Language Glass [book by Deutscher] Time markers Unconscious presuppositions Universal grammar Vikings Vocabulary “What is Enlightenment” [Kant] What Language Is [McWhorter] Whorfianism AUTHOR NOTES, SUMMARY, AND BOOK DESCRIPTION AUTHOR NOTES = John McWhorter is Professor of Linguistics at Columbia University and author of many books, including The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language, Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold Story of English, and What Language Is, What It Isn't, and What It Could Be. He also writes on language, as well as race and cultural issues, as Contributing Editor at The New Republic and Columnist at Time. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Time, and The New Yorker, and he has appeared often on National Public Radio, CSPAN and MSNBC. SUMMARY = This short, opinionated book addresses the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which argues that the language we speak shapes the way we perceive the world. Linguist John McWhorter argues that while this idea is mesmerizing, it is plainly wrong. BOOK DESCRIPTION = Does language control and limit the way we think? Or does language reflect culture and worldview — not the other way around? The fact that a particular language has only one word for eat, drink, and smoke does not mean that its speakers do not process the difference between food and beverage. Japanese has a term that covers both green and blue. Russian has separate terms for dark and light blue. Does this mean that Russians perceive these colors differently from Japanese people? No! Those who use the same word for blue and green perceive those two colors just as vividly as others do. (Paraphrased by webmaster from publisher's blurb). McWhorter shows not only how the idea of language as a lens fails but also why we want so badly to believe that it is a lens! We are eager to celebrate diversity by acknowledging the intelligence of peoples who may not think like we do. Though well-intentioned, our belief in this idea poses an obstacle to a better understanding of human nature and even trivializes the people we seek to celebrate. The reality is that all humans think alike. McWhorter provides another, better way for us to acknowledge the intelligence of all peoples. EDITORIAL BOOK REVIEW PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY REVIEW = McWhorter (The Power of Babel), a linguistics professor at Columbia University, celebrates the diversity of languages and the cultures that speak them in this persuasive rebuttal to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, first advanced in the field of linguistics in the 1930s. That hypothesis holds that language channels the way a culture views the world --- that Russians, who have two specific words for blue, are more sensitive than other cultures to nuances of color; that the Amazonian Piraha tribe, whose language has no numbers, do not know how to count; and so on. Challenging a number of Whorfian studies and the cultural assumptions extrapolated from them, McWhorter shows how improbable it is that a culture's language is encoded with its worldview: that the Amazon Tuyucas, whose language is thick with evidential markers that establish the veracity of information that is being conveyed, are somehow more skeptical than the ancient Greeks, whose language has no evidential markers, for example. McWhorter writes with liveliness and enthusiasm, noting: "All languages are, in their own ways, as utterly awesome as creatures, snowflakes, Haydn string quartets, or what The Magnificent Ambersons would have been like if Orson Welles had been allowed to do the final edit." This book makes very accessible to the lay reader some of the more esoteric theories of linguistic studies. REMEMBER ALWAYS: You Are Your Adaptable Memory! instantly return to: Introduction - Section 2 - Details WHAT DOES THE ALPHABETICAL BRAIN™ SYMBOL MEAN? ALPHABETICAL BRAIN VOCABULARY produced by Infinite Interactive Ideas™