selected writings of edward sapir in language culture and personality

I will argue that most “liguistically informed” people are, and always have been, of the opinion that language influences thought, and that the contrary opinion has only recently gained the upper hand among professional linguists. In this essay I will try to show that the case is otherwise. 2 The idea is portrayed as being an eccentric minority opinion which hardly deserves serious consideration. The idea that languages affect the way we think has been called a “fallacy” by Carson and by others who advocate paraphrastic translations, and one gets the impression from them that this idea has no standing at all among the “linguistically informed,” as Carson puts it.

” 1 Other writers maintain that differences between languages are such that an accurate translation must frequently be unidiomatic in the receptor language, because the idiomatic contructions and usages of the receptor language cannot capture the foreign modes of thought which are inherent in the language of the original text. may have to use entirely different constructions, or resort to paraphrasis. Carson says in one place, “Although it is true that words only partially overlap between languages, nevertheless ‘all languages can talk about the same meaning, and for that matter about all meanings.’ It is just that. For example, the New Testament scholar D.A. These theorists have a very optimistic view of the ability of translators to put the meaning of a text into different languages in ways that are perfectly natural or idiomatic for the “receptor” languages.

Some theorists maintain that the peculiarities of a given language do not significantly affect the thinking of those who speak or write in that language, and so the differences between languages are largely accidental or irrelevent to the meaning of the text. In recent discussions about theories and methods of translation one often encounters general statements about the relationship of language to thought. That they may all call upon the name of the Lord, The Effect of Language upon Thinking Bible Research > Interpretation > Translation Methods > Language and Thoughtįor then will I restore to the peoples a pure language,

Selected writings of edward sapir in language culture and personality