2 ms·
If a writing system doesn't count (it's a fair point, and I understand what you're saying), then how does one counter the evidence in the article that one speak
by jgg 13y ago
If a writing system doesn't count (it's a fair point, and I understand what you're saying), then how does one counter the evidence in the article that one speaker of one language does a task better than speakers of a different language?
If my language is, for example, French or (older) Welsh, and my counting system is vigesimal (base 20), why is it wrong to claim that a person who speaks French would have an easier time with the basic idea of base 20 math, or just counting in terms of 20's, than a native English speaker, assuming no extra training on the part of either? Why is it wrong to assume that a language with a case system would yield native speakers who were better at explicitly identifying the subject and object of a sentence than speakers of languages that don't have a case system?
I just have a hard time grasping how people conditioned to think a certain way via their (or, a) language couldn't have a better understanding of some concepts than others.
>I cannot comment on the political motivations to deny linguistic relativism. I am just a linguist.
Sorry if you felt that I was pigeonholing you, thanks for your input.
- thaumasiotes 13y agoHow does French qualify as using a base-20 counting system? Intuitively, I'd expect that to mean - special words for the numbers 1-19 - special words for 20, 40, 60, 80, 100, 120, ..., 380 - special words for 400, 8000, 160,000, etc. Instead, what we actually see in French is - special words for the numbers 1-16 - special words for 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, and 80 - special words for 100, 1000, 1,000,000, etc. This is a base-10 system (with the odd quirk), as far as I can see.
- jgg 13y agoIt is actually referred to as a "base 20" counting system, although I agree that it isn't a very good one. It's definitely not a "pure" base-20 system, but many numbers are expressed of a multiple of twenty + remainder. Perhaps a better example of a feature in a language that would provide more prominent cognitive differences would be one of the languages that requires users to mark a statement based on how they know the fact (witness, second-hand account, etc.), whose names escape me. Ah well.