tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2993864.post2520073522903709938..comments2021-06-09T10:28:01.204-07:00Comments on Glimpse - For People Interested in Language and the Brain: Coming Full Circle on WhorfNora Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05690938219773877575noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2993864.post-50252725859240169782010-12-19T14:47:37.512-08:002010-12-19T14:47:37.512-08:00Nora,
Thank you for your reply. I'll keep tho...Nora,<br /><br />Thank you for your reply. I'll keep those books in mind but I am intrigued by Greymanship and plan to read it soon. <br /><br />Climb or descend, maybe it is only me who is falling.Ken E Beckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14083376938841980857noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2993864.post-62582257118647426132010-12-19T07:29:18.613-08:002010-12-19T07:29:18.613-08:00Hi Ken. Thanks for the comment.
Actually it'...Hi Ken. Thanks for the comment. <br /><br />Actually it's the Mandarin that have the vertical time metaphor, not the Hopi. As I recall, Whorf found through conversations with a Hopi speaker that the language appeared not to use tenses for past, present and future, and from that concluded that they do not think in terms of time. Later research has found that they do have two tenses ("manifest", ie, in existence or having already happened; and "becoming manifest", ie, nonphysical, non-sensible or having no definite origin.) While some have used this to discredit Whorf and his conjectures, more and more linguists are coming to accept the "soft" Whorf theory that language influences thought, while perhaps not to the rigid extent that Whorf speculated about.<br /><br />As for how the Mandarins see time: while I could not access the full report of the study I cited in the post, I find that Lera Boroditsky, well-known neuroscientist and one of the authors of that study, published results of a previous study in 2001 here: http://www-psych.stanford.edu/~lera/papers/mandarin.pdf. It gives a fairly clear explanation for the vertical time metaphor. An event in the past is above a more recent event, while future events are below the present. The usage employs the words for "climb" or "descend".<br /><br />Like most metaphors about the "real" world, these time-related metaphors appear to draw on the structure of physical experience. If you haven't had a chance to read Lakoff and Johnson's books on metaphor, I heartily recommend them. Very thought-provoking.Nora Millerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05690938219773877575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2993864.post-71645859732423545892010-12-19T06:28:25.901-08:002010-12-19T06:28:25.901-08:00Interesting post, I got here from The Monkey Cage....Interesting post, I got here from The Monkey Cage. <br /><br />In navigation we say that time zones to our east are "ahead" and zones to the west are "behind". We also speak of putting things in the past behind us. So I guess we travel though time by moving ahead. We spring ahead and fall back. So the Hopi are what, falling through time? It would be spring up, fall down?Ken E Beckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14083376938841980857noreply@blogger.com