Snow for cooling down: reflections on linguistic relativity conditioned by the environment in the scientific study of human languages
The present work reflects on the notions of word, meaning and linguistic relativity, as presented in the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, and in relation with lexicography by analysing the controversy regarding the amount of words in Eskimo for snow. After exploring the early days of the controversy based on...
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Programa de Pós-Graduação em LinguÃstica da UFSC
2017
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Online Access: | https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/workingpapers/article/view/1984-8420.2017v18n1p140 https://doi.org/10.5007/1984-8420.2017v18n1p140 |
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ftunivfscojs:oai:periodicos.ufsc.br:article/49394 2024-09-15T18:04:58+00:00 Snow for cooling down: reflections on linguistic relativity conditioned by the environment in the scientific study of human languages Neve para refrescar: reflexões sobre relatividade linguÃstica condicionada pelo ambiente no estudo cientÃfico das lÃnguas humanas Esteves da Rocha, Marco Antonio Rocha, João Paulo Zarelli 2017-09-18 application/pdf https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/workingpapers/article/view/1984-8420.2017v18n1p140 https://doi.org/10.5007/1984-8420.2017v18n1p140 por por Programa de Pós-Graduação em LinguÃstica da UFSC https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/workingpapers/article/view/1984-8420.2017v18n1p140/34895 https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/workingpapers/article/view/1984-8420.2017v18n1p140 doi:10.5007/1984-8420.2017v18n1p140 Copyright (c) 2017 Marco Antonio Esteves da Rocha, João Paulo Zarelli Rocha Working Papers em LinguÃstica; v. 18 n. 1 (2017): LinguÃstica & História; 140-156 1984-8420 info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion "Avaliado por pares" Pesquisa Comparativa 2017 ftunivfscojs https://doi.org/10.5007/1984-8420.2017v18n1p140 2024-07-11T03:45:51Z The present work reflects on the notions of word, meaning and linguistic relativity, as presented in the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, and in relation with lexicography by analysing the controversy regarding the amount of words in Eskimo for snow. After exploring the early days of the controversy based on the remarks of Franz Boas in the end of the 19th century, the example is utilized for investigating the possible effect that the grammatical structure and the lexicon of a language may have over the way speakers of this language perceive the world, since these aspects of the linguistic knowledge would be conditioned by where the speakers of this language live. The frequently sarcastic arguments that associate these aspects of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis and the amount of words for snow are discussed with intensive use of material related to well-established parameters of the linguistic typology. New elements revealed by recent research are incorporated into the analysis of cultural and environmental conditioning of lexical semantics of languages. These current investigations seem to support Boas’s initial conclusions regarding the wide variety of words for snow in Eskimo, in terms of both morphological and semantics significant distinctions. The discussion concludes by emphasising the importance of human knowledge expressed by these distinctions, despite the uses of this information in non-specialized contexts, such as “motivational†speeches for sales professionals, which would be potentially misguided in terms of scientific standards of language studies. Este trabalho pretende, através de uma análise da controvérsia a respeito da quantidade de palavras existentes em esquimó para referir-se a neve, fazer uma reflexão sobre as noções de palavra, significado e relatividade linguÃstica, conforme definidas na hipótese Sapir-Whorf, e em relação com a lexicografia. Após explorar os primórdios da controvérsia com base nas formulações de Franz Boas no final do séc. XIX, o exemplo é utilizado para ... Article in Journal/Newspaper eskimo* Portal de Periódicos UFSC (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina) Working Papers em Linguística 18 1 140 |
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Portal de Periódicos UFSC (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina) |
op_collection_id |
ftunivfscojs |
language |
Portuguese |
description |
The present work reflects on the notions of word, meaning and linguistic relativity, as presented in the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, and in relation with lexicography by analysing the controversy regarding the amount of words in Eskimo for snow. After exploring the early days of the controversy based on the remarks of Franz Boas in the end of the 19th century, the example is utilized for investigating the possible effect that the grammatical structure and the lexicon of a language may have over the way speakers of this language perceive the world, since these aspects of the linguistic knowledge would be conditioned by where the speakers of this language live. The frequently sarcastic arguments that associate these aspects of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis and the amount of words for snow are discussed with intensive use of material related to well-established parameters of the linguistic typology. New elements revealed by recent research are incorporated into the analysis of cultural and environmental conditioning of lexical semantics of languages. These current investigations seem to support Boas’s initial conclusions regarding the wide variety of words for snow in Eskimo, in terms of both morphological and semantics significant distinctions. The discussion concludes by emphasising the importance of human knowledge expressed by these distinctions, despite the uses of this information in non-specialized contexts, such as “motivational†speeches for sales professionals, which would be potentially misguided in terms of scientific standards of language studies. Este trabalho pretende, através de uma análise da controvérsia a respeito da quantidade de palavras existentes em esquimó para referir-se a neve, fazer uma reflexão sobre as noções de palavra, significado e relatividade linguÃstica, conforme definidas na hipótese Sapir-Whorf, e em relação com a lexicografia. Após explorar os primórdios da controvérsia com base nas formulações de Franz Boas no final do séc. XIX, o exemplo é utilizado para ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Esteves da Rocha, Marco Antonio Rocha, João Paulo Zarelli |
spellingShingle |
Esteves da Rocha, Marco Antonio Rocha, João Paulo Zarelli Snow for cooling down: reflections on linguistic relativity conditioned by the environment in the scientific study of human languages |
author_facet |
Esteves da Rocha, Marco Antonio Rocha, João Paulo Zarelli |
author_sort |
Esteves da Rocha, Marco Antonio |
title |
Snow for cooling down: reflections on linguistic relativity conditioned by the environment in the scientific study of human languages |
title_short |
Snow for cooling down: reflections on linguistic relativity conditioned by the environment in the scientific study of human languages |
title_full |
Snow for cooling down: reflections on linguistic relativity conditioned by the environment in the scientific study of human languages |
title_fullStr |
Snow for cooling down: reflections on linguistic relativity conditioned by the environment in the scientific study of human languages |
title_full_unstemmed |
Snow for cooling down: reflections on linguistic relativity conditioned by the environment in the scientific study of human languages |
title_sort |
snow for cooling down: reflections on linguistic relativity conditioned by the environment in the scientific study of human languages |
publisher |
Programa de Pós-Graduação em LinguÃstica da UFSC |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/workingpapers/article/view/1984-8420.2017v18n1p140 https://doi.org/10.5007/1984-8420.2017v18n1p140 |
genre |
eskimo* |
genre_facet |
eskimo* |
op_source |
Working Papers em LinguÃstica; v. 18 n. 1 (2017): LinguÃstica & História; 140-156 1984-8420 |
op_relation |
https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/workingpapers/article/view/1984-8420.2017v18n1p140/34895 https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/workingpapers/article/view/1984-8420.2017v18n1p140 doi:10.5007/1984-8420.2017v18n1p140 |
op_rights |
Copyright (c) 2017 Marco Antonio Esteves da Rocha, João Paulo Zarelli Rocha |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5007/1984-8420.2017v18n1p140 |
container_title |
Working Papers em Linguística |
container_volume |
18 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
140 |
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1810442575027372032 |