Date:  Thu, 7 Dec 1995 00:33:23 -0800

From:  Rima & Kim McKinzey <rkm[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]SLIP.NET>

Subject: Re: linguistic thinking



 There is

>a constant danger, even for linguists, to get trapped in the Eurocentric

>view of language as composed of atomic things called "words", and to think

>other peoples and cultures less sophisticated because they don't have "a word"

>for something. For one thing, they may have many words for aspects of a

>phenomenon, and think English speakers less capable of precise thought because

>we bumble along with a single gross category.



I've always thought that one of the joys of learning another language was

learning to think somewhat differently.



Rima