I think that music is definatly a language of its own.
However Whorfianism does have some relevance to the discussion of the
language of disability, in that the debate about politically correct
language seems to have evolved principally in the English tongue, where
there are shades and subtleties of difference between words like,
handicapped, disabled, impaired, or differenced. I wonder if the same debate
can effectively be carried on in French or Cantonese particularly in
cantonese where the pictograms are connotative of fossilised ntions of the
entity they are describing at the time they came into being.
I was reading recently that Derrida can really only be understood properly
in French because of the subtle word play he uses eg deferance, differance
which are homophones in French.
Similarly we seem to borrow widely from other languages to add to expression
particularly in the humanities "Weltanschaung, Schadenfreude," etc.
We only have to think about the difficulties of translating a poem
effectively from one language to another or an instruction manual to realise
the differences that it can make.
Larry
> -----Original Message-----
> From: The Disability-Research Discussion List
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of John Homan
> Sent: 27 March 2002 01:05
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Whorfian revival? Effect of language on thought
>
>
> Dear Larry,
>
> I am an engineer who also likes language as expression of mind
> and thought.
> I am not prepared to limit my concept of language to what I write
> on paper,
> or a transcript of what comes out of my mouth. The french say:
> "C'est le ton
> qui fait la musique" Following through on that concept we would
> be remiss if
> we did not include music, dance, the visual arts et al, as
> integral parts of
> language.
>
> have a good time, rgds John
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Larry Arnold <[log in to unmask]>
> To: John Homan <[log in to unmask]>;
> <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Wednesday, 27 March, 2002 10:29 AM
> Subject: RE: Whorfian revival? Effect of language on thought
>
>
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