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Natural Languages as Cultural Indices

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

W. H. Werkmeister*
Affiliation:
University of Nebraska

Extract

A short time ago, D. D. Lee wrote in Philosophy of Science: “Grammar contains in crystallized form the accumulated and accumulating experience, the Weltanschauung of a people.“ He thus called our attention once more to a theme which was much discussed during the 19th century but which has been in disrepute for some time in philosophical circles. It is a theme, however, which is not without merit. More than seven years of intensive study of primitive languages have convinced me that the work started by Wilhelm von Humboldt deserves serious consideration even at present, and from the ethnological as well as from the philosophical point of view.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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References

Notes

1 Lee, D. D., Conceptual Implications of an Indian Language, Philosophy of Science, V (1938), 89.

2 Humboldt, W. v., Ueber die Verschiedenheil des menschlichen Sprachbaues, Pott edition, II. For a criticism of this thesis, see Steinthal, H., Die Classification der Sprachen dargestellt als die Entwicklung der Sprachidee.

3 Wundt, W., Voelkerpsychologie, I, 451-52.

4 Often the Question is expressed by an assertion and its contradiction: na ko jên lai pu lai, that man comes not comes.

5 Summers, J., Handbook of the Chinese Language; Lessing and Othmer, Lehrbuch der nordchinesischen Umgangssprache.

6 Thatcher, G. W., Arabic Grammar, 2nd edition; Socin, A., Arabic Grammar, 2nd English edition.

7 Cf. Graebner, F., Das Weltbild der Primitiven, 93-103.

8 Cf. Stefánsson, V., My Life with the Eskimo, 356. Thalbitzer, W., Eskimo, Boas' Handbook of American Indian Languages, I, 1002, 1053: “A whole sentence may be expressed in a word—in a word-sentence“. Bourquin, Th., Grammatik der Eskimo-Sprache, 167.

9 Thalbitzer, op. cit. 1055-56.

10 Cf. Finck, F. N., Die Sprachstaemme des Erdkreises, and Die Haupttypen des Sprachaues, 35-36.

11 Compare these linguistic forms with the English phrase, thoughts press in upon us.

12 Thalbitzer, op. cit. 1057.

13 Stefánsson, op. cit. 354.

14 Cf. Werkmeister, W. H., The Symbolism of Natural Languages, to be published shortly as Chapter V in the author's Philosophy of Science.

15 Boas, F., The Mind of Primitive Man, 98. For detailed proof see Werkmeister, op. cit.

16 Werkmeister, op. cit.

17 Cf. Cassirer, E., Philosophie der symbolischen Formen, I, 231-32. Humboldt, op. cit. 72-73.

18 Cf. Werkmeister, op. cit.

19 Vendryes, J., Language, A Linguistic Introduction to History, English edition, 73. See also Gardiner, A. H., The Theory of Speech and Language, 327.

20 Whitney, W. D., The Life and Growth of Language, 225.

21 Humboldt, op. cit., 204-215.

22 Vendryes, op. cit. 239: “The habit of always placing the verb in a certain position leads to a particular manner of thinking, and may have a certain influence on the course of an argument. French, German, or English thought is subordinate to a certain extent to the language.“

23 Ibid. 357.

24 Ibid. xiii. See also 354-59.

25 Cf. Finck, Haupttypen, op. cit. 13-14.

26 Thalbitzer, Op. cit. 1059. Thalbitzer discusses here the Eskimo language only, but his statement is true universally.

27 Boas, F., Tsimshian, Handbook, op. cit. 299.

28 Cassirer, op. cit. 235-43.

29 An abundance of relevant material and the most comprehensive bibliography in the field may be found in Schmidt, W., Sprathfamilien und Sprachenkreist der Erde, especially 271-540.

30 Cf. ibid. 529.

31 Ibid. 461-62.