Phil and Hassan, (01)
I don't want to revive the debates about Sapir-Whorf. So I'll just
use the noncommittal word 'influence', and let anyone elaborate that
word with any qualifiers they prefer. (02)
PM
> Yes, native speakers of English like me have to adapt to the significant
> difference between representations of tense. But in this particular
> case, I can't think of any specific instances in which an equivalent,
> fully grammatical representation cannot be constructed in either
> language. (03)
That's true. And it's consistent with what Keith Chen was claiming.
He made the point that the syntactic patterns of certain languages
have *obligatory* distinctions that other languages leave *optional*. (04)
In the Sherlock Holmes stories, Conan Doyle emphasized the difference
between passive seeing and active observing. Sherlock said that other
people *saw* the same things he did, but they did not *observe* them.
Different language patterns can affect what people see or observe. (05)
PM
> I believe that awareness/understanding of purposeful activities
> preceded the use of language to convey that awareness. (06)
That's true for most language use. But the patterns of different
languages can emphasize or obscure different features. (07)
HAK
> I'd say a good example might be poetry...
>
> ... Basically, I like to play on word sounds so that what you
> read and what you hear have different meanings... (08)
Yes. Poetry is extremely difficult to translate. The literal
"meaning" can be translated, but the sound patterns can have
a significant *influence*. (09)
John (010)
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