I remember encountering Whorf’s ideas, and some ideas related to them, in college 1970 -74.
By “related to them” I mean other ideas in the general area of cultural anthropology. Ideas of Levi-Strauss. Malinowski. Boaz, Mead, Geertz, Sahlins, etc. As a 19-20 year old I found these ideas so provocative they literally made the hair on my arms stand up. They kept me up reading and thinking well past my bedtime — which was already late enough. Sure, some of the answers that Whorf & his contemporaries came up with have not withstood the test of time. But their questions remain relevant. My undergraduate degree (Hamilton College, Clinton, NY) is in Anthropology. I love that shit. jrs P.S. Tangentially related: I sometimes note the absence, in English, of a word meaning “adult son or daughter” or the plural thereof. We say “my children”, when said “children” are 35 years old. That’s just wrong. But there’s no alternative. Sure, there is the word “offspring” and I suppose a few like it, but they’re like $2 bills or $1 coins. They exist but they’ve never caught on and there’s probably a reason for that. They don’t feel quite right. But why? And what is that word I’m looking for? Why doesn’t it exist? > On Sep 13, 2015, at 11:01 PM, Bruce A. Metcalf <brmetc...@comcast.net> wrote: > > Interesting concepts, but the article leaves me with one large question: > > "Was George Orwell right or not?" > > The article seems to have it both ways.
