Date: Mon, 15 Jan 1996 20:58:15 -0700

From: William King WFKING[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU

Subject: Re: myths about language



Since I only have the 3rd ed. of __Language: Introductory Readings__, I

don't know whether the list includes the notion that Eskimos have 100 or

500 words for snow.

A more controversial one, at least among writing instructors, is

that writing is the same as thinking, or, to the extreme, that only

verbalized thinking counts as real thinking.

Finally, there is a widespread belief that writing in Japanese

and Chinese would be much, much easier if they'd only get rid of those

characters. A newspaper column called __Ask Cecil__ suggested that

typing in Japanese must be nearly impossible, although the truth is that

modern technology changed this a while back.

Bill King

SLAT program, University of Arizona