On 8/17/2011 5:22 PM, Christopher Menzel wrote:
> Bottom line for me is that I've yet to see an alleged case of
>"incommensurability"
> that wasn't either trivially resolvable (e.g., the old chestnut about how the
> Aleut conception of "snow" is incommensurable with ours) or more clearly
>explicable
> in more traditional terms.* (01)
That is probably true for many cases. (02)
But, as you point out, there are probably some examples where the word
'incommensurable' might apply. (03)
> *Actually, the Pirahã language, as described in Dan Everett's fascinating
> work, *might* provide some examples where the notion has some purchase. (04)
But as Everett pointed out, even *human intelligence* by professional
linguists isn't adequate to understand the Pirahã. He has lived with
them for extended periods of time, and he has been continuing to visit
them periodically for over 20 years. But he still keeps discovering
new surprises and aspects that don't correspond to anything in any
other languages. (05)
John (06)
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