SlideShare ist ein Scribd-Unternehmen logo
1 von 5
Downloaden Sie, um offline zu lesen
Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf's hypothesis of linguistic relativism holds that the language
we speak both affects and reflects our view of the world. This idea is also reflected in the
concept behind General Semantics. In a popular 1940 article on the subject, Whorf referred to
Eskimo languages having seven distinct words for snow. Later writers inflated the figure in
sensationalized stories: by 1978, the number quoted had reached 50, and on February 9, 1984, an
editorial in The New York Times gave the number as one hundred.[2]

The idea that Eskimos had so many words for snow has given rise to the idea that Eskimos
viewed snow very differently from people of other cultures. For example, when it snows, others
see snow, but Eskimos could see any manifestation of their great and varied vocabulary.
Vulgarized versions of Whorf's views hold not only that Eskimo speakers can choose among
several snow words, but that they do not categorize all seven (or however many) as "snow": to
them, each word is supposedly a separate concept. Thus language is thought to impose a
particular view of the world — not just for Eskimo languages, but for all groups.


"Eskimo" words for snow
by Steven J. Derose, January 1999. Last updated September,
2005.
Like most of us, I've heard many times about how many words people
from snowy cultures have for snow. I've always found it implausible, but
recently I found a beautiful account of this urban myth in Geoffrey K.
Pullum's book The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax (University of
Chicago Press, 1991; and of course available from Amazon) -- I highly
recommend this book. Since it also includes some relatively hard facts,
and since I really enjoyed reading it, I thought it worth putting up this
page about it.

Pullum cites a detailed article on the phenomenon, that I have not yet
obtained: Laura Martin, 1986. "Eskimo Words for Snow: A case study in the genesis and decay
of an anthropological example." American Anthropologist 88(2), pp. 418-423. She traces the
myth to Franz Boas' Introduction to The Handbook of North American Indians (at least 15
volumes, sadly out of print and going for $75+ per volume used). In that introduction he says
merely (as described by Pullum on p. 162):

just as English uses derived terms for a variety of forms of water (liquid, lake, river, brook, rain,
dew, wave, foam) that might be formed by derivational morphology [suffixes and other such
stuff] from a single root meaning 'water' in some other language, so Eskimo uses the apparently
distinct roots aput 'snow on the ground', gana 'falling snow', piqsirpoq 'drifting snow', and
qimuqsuq 'a snow drift'.

From there Martin and Pullum trace the steady growth of exaggeration, starting with Whorf's
much quoted 1940 article that grows the word-count magically to 7, and eventually reaching
sources claiming totals as high as 400. Just a few weeks ago I sat across a table at dinner from
someone claiming to actually know "all 57 Eskimo words for snow" -- but I had neither a native
speaker nor Pullum's article at hand.

As Pullum deftly points out, the traditional claim is "Eskimos have N words for snow" (for
growing N) -- and every part of that claim is problematic:

   •   There is no single language "Eskimo", just as there is no single language "Indian". And,
       like "Indian", "Eskimo" is not a very good name: it lumps together two major cultural
       groups, the Inuit and Aleut, and ignores major differences (including huge language
       variation) within each group.
   •   How do we count "words"? As a computational linguist (for you co-nerds, technically
       that would be "corpus linguist", and my dissertation was on Hidden Markov Models for
       part-of-speech disambiguation in American English and Koine Greek), I am innately
       suspicious of any claim about enumerations of "words". What is a word, anyway? There
       is no single definition (see below).
   •   What qualifies a word as being "for snow"? Surely it cannot mean the word must have
       exactly the same range of applications as English "snow", or Eskimo surely has no words
       for snow at all. Does Eskimo have a word for the grey mist in a poor TV picture? Just
       how wide or narrow do we draw the boundaries, and how do we ensure we're drawing
       them the same in the languages being compared?

What's a word, really?
Just deciding what we mean by "word" is subtle. For example:

   •   How do we count "go", "goes", and "went"? This is a way worse problem in many other
       languages than in English; I learned several hundred forms per verb in Greek, and my
       best estimate when studying Michif (related to Cree) was 5000 forms per verb.
   •   How do we count "dog" as in woof-woof, versus "dog" as in what you do to close a hatch
       on a submarine, or to follow someone? What of "snow" meaning "to confuse"?
   •   How do we count "link end", "link-end", and "linkend", and other compound words?
       When does a common phrase or idiom become a word?
   •   How do we count "love" versus "lovesong", "lovebird", "lovesick", and many more?
   •   Inuit and Aleut are agglutinative languages: they tend to assemble large words out of
       many parts. English is more likely to use multiple "words" instead: "new fallen snow".
       This pattern has nothing to do with snow; it's just part of how English, Inuit, and Aleut
       differ in general.

Purveyors of the myth seem bound to include as many faintly snow-related phenomena as
possible when deciding which Eskimo words count, but to require perfect synonymy to "snow"
when deciding about English (thus leaving us but one "word for snow").

One example of this conveniently inconsistent definition is from a list of 20 ostensible Eskimo
snow-words that came to Pullum: igluqsaq. This is a compound word meaning 'house-building
material' (note the familiar 'iglu' at the beginning): it can mean plywood or brick just as well as
snow. If we pulled the same trick with English, we would start counting words like "etiology" (a
slip on snow can cause injury), "projectile" (you can throw snowballs), "food" (you can eat snow
as long as it's white), and so on. Hmmm.

So how many already?
Pullum cites several sources on how many words certain Inuit dialects actually have for snow.
The two main ones are:

    •   The Dictionary of the West Greenlandic Eskimo Language (C. W. Schultz-Lorentzen,
        Copenhagan: Reitzels, 1927) gives just two words: qanik for snowflakes in the air, and
        aput for snow on the ground.
    •   The Yup'ik Eskimo Dictionary (Steven A. Jacobson, Fairbanks: University of Alaska,
        1984) has, according to Pullum's colleague Anthony Woodbury, about 24 if you're very
        generous. By "very generous", I mean including words for "stuff for sinking habitually
        into", "blizzard", "avalanche", and so on.

So 24 seems to be the outer limit that could be defended, at least for Yup'ik. Unless there are
speakers somewhere who make a living by coining new snow-words and selling them.... No one
seems to have checked on that possibility.

Oh yeah, does English have any words for snow?
It's only fair to see how many snow-words we can find in English. I didn't even poke around the
OED yet, but even if we skip the inflected forms (snows, snowed, snowing, snowy, snowness,
snew, snewn,... well, we weren't going to count those anyway), there is still a veritable hail of
terms:

berg, cornice, crevasse, floe, frost, glacier, hail, hardpack, hoarfrost, ice, iceball, icecap, iceberg,
ice field, icicle, powder, rime, snow, slush, sleet, snowball, snowcap

Not to mention a blizzard of words for the parts of snow and for snow as a weather condition:

avalanche, blizzard, dusting, flurry, ice crystal, ice storm

And the list snowballs as we notice compound words related to snow (excluding snow-related
objects like snowboards and snowshovels):

snowball, snowbank, snowcapped, snowdrift, snowfall, snowflake, snowlike, snowman,
snowstorm

And let us not forget the storm of words that are spelled with a space in them: phrases that have
(arguably, of course) become lexical items through frequent and distinctive use:

freezing rain, new-fallen snow, yellow snow, glare ice, purple wax snow (and a host of others
skiers can cite)
I can't imagine I've listed anywhere near all the good candidates, but already that's 40. Which, by
the way, is several more than the generous estimate for Inuit.

If we were as generous as some are for Eskimo, beyond those we'd add etiology, construction
material, food, weapon, toy, floor, projectile, sculpture, refrigerator, obstruction (reaching
double the total for Inuit), and probably dozens more. And we haven't even considered any
synonyms for "snow job" (a quick look in a thesaurus reveals over 100), "snow" on your TV,
and being "snowed" under.

And why should we care?
It is the conclusions drawn from this bizarre claim that puzzle me most. One seemingly popular
conclusion takes Whorf (of the "Sapir-Whorf hypothesis") farther than perhaps even Whorf
would go, and suggests that such differences in vocabulary make cross-language communication
fundamentally impossible, or even make a notion of any underlying reality (accessible or not)
impossible. None of this of course follows. As Pullum again points out, anyone concerned about
a particular subject has a proportionately detailed vocabulary for it. There is little surprising or
interesting about this, and it doesn't seem to have much affect on communication, realism, or
anything else beyond signalling that you are (or aren't) an expert on a precise topic:

   •   I have precise words for things others would merely lump together and call "hypertext
       links".
   •   In reading a book on knife sharpening, I just discovered formal terminology for bits of
       rock, carefully distinguished by diameters from 10 inches down to 0.00015 or so. They're
       also described here.
   •   Wine tasters have another set of terms, far more detailed than I can use competently.
   •   ...

So if some language(s) did have many words for snow, it should be no more interesting than
these other everyday cases. But if you think about it, people who live in ever-snowful lands may
perhaps care no more about fine variations of snow, than we in warmer climes care about fine
variations of grass or pavement: anything so constant disappears into the background and
becomes less interesting.

And meanwhile in Greek
A similar common idea is that Greek is far better equipped to express "love" than English. We
poor benighted Anglophones have (alas!) but a single word, while those deeply philosophical
Greeks of old were blessed with four. And of course, they always used each one in precisely the
same way, and never let them overlap (oh yeah? Guess which term the Septuagint uses of
Amnon's feelings for Tamar in 2 Samuel 13:1-4).

Again, we can find more words in English if we try to cover the same range as the 4 Greek
words cover: adoration, affection, ardor, amourousness, attachment, caring, concern, cherishing,
compassion, devotion, enamorement, fancy, favor, fondness, liking, love, lust, passion,
tenderness -- to name but a few (19 to be precise).
Perhaps the myth arises from our need to count, to draw boundaries, to categorize; to pretend
things are simpler and clearer than they are. Oh well; that's my small contribution to de-bunking
a linguistic legend.

A few references
   •   Inuit Words for Snow by David Mendosa. Includes a tongue-in-cheek list of about 100
       fictional words for snow, and some correspondence with Steven Pinker, author of The
       Language Instinct.
   •   The Linguist List has discussed these issues on various occasions. One notable occasion
       was volume 5, issue 1239 in 1994. It includes a nice piece by Anthony C. Woodbury,
       Counting Eskimo words for snow: A citizen's guide, which is also reposted here.
   •   The relevant Wikipedia entry is also helpful.
   •   Some discussion is provided by Stuart Derby here, along with a list of potential snow-
       words (most of them compounds).


Back to home page of Steve DeRose or The Bible Technologies Group. or The Bible
Technologies Group Working Groups. Or, contact me via email (fix the punctuation).

Weitere ähnliche Inhalte

Ähnlich wie Snow In Eskimo Language

Language culture & thought
Language culture & thoughtLanguage culture & thought
Language culture & thoughtClive McGoun
 
Text 5 words-native_and_borrowed
Text 5 words-native_and_borrowedText 5 words-native_and_borrowed
Text 5 words-native_and_borrowedingridbelloa
 
Words : Native and Borrowed
Words : Native and BorrowedWords : Native and Borrowed
Words : Native and BorrowedAnna Molly
 
Text 8 words-native_and_borrowed
Text 8 words-native_and_borrowedText 8 words-native_and_borrowed
Text 8 words-native_and_borrowedjarosalestorres
 
Text 5 words-native_and_borrowed
Text 5 words-native_and_borrowedText 5 words-native_and_borrowed
Text 5 words-native_and_borrowedCristian Diaz
 
Text 5 words-native_and_borrowed
Text 5 words-native_and_borrowedText 5 words-native_and_borrowed
Text 5 words-native_and_borrowedmakarenasanchez
 
Text 8 words-native_and_borrowed
Text 8 words-native_and_borrowedText 8 words-native_and_borrowed
Text 8 words-native_and_borrowedjarosalestorres
 
Words: Native and Borrowed
Words: Native and BorrowedWords: Native and Borrowed
Words: Native and BorrowedCamila__
 
Text 8 words-native_and_borrowed
Text 8 words-native_and_borrowedText 8 words-native_and_borrowed
Text 8 words-native_and_borrowedescobarpaulina
 
Words:Native and Borrowed
 Words:Native and Borrowed Words:Native and Borrowed
Words:Native and Borrowedtowersgary
 
Language & gender presentation
Language & gender presentationLanguage & gender presentation
Language & gender presentationHasan BİLOKCUOGLU
 
Word forming proccess coinage
Word forming proccess coinageWord forming proccess coinage
Word forming proccess coinageLinda Julie
 
Perennial Dilemmas in English Education
Perennial Dilemmas in English EducationPerennial Dilemmas in English Education
Perennial Dilemmas in English EducationDiane Phelps, PhD
 
English language
English languageEnglish language
English languageeilatanxo
 
Meaning, thought and reality: How categories influence thinking.
Meaning, thought and reality: How categories influence thinking.Meaning, thought and reality: How categories influence thinking.
Meaning, thought and reality: How categories influence thinking.ThaSouzza
 
10 etymological-survey-of-the-english-word
10 etymological-survey-of-the-english-word10 etymological-survey-of-the-english-word
10 etymological-survey-of-the-english-wordMai Trọng
 

Ähnlich wie Snow In Eskimo Language (20)

Language culture & thought
Language culture & thoughtLanguage culture & thought
Language culture & thought
 
Text 5 words-native_and_borrowed
Text 5 words-native_and_borrowedText 5 words-native_and_borrowed
Text 5 words-native_and_borrowed
 
Words : Native and Borrowed
Words : Native and BorrowedWords : Native and Borrowed
Words : Native and Borrowed
 
Text 8 words-native_and_borrowed
Text 8 words-native_and_borrowedText 8 words-native_and_borrowed
Text 8 words-native_and_borrowed
 
Text 5 words-native_and_borrowed
Text 5 words-native_and_borrowedText 5 words-native_and_borrowed
Text 5 words-native_and_borrowed
 
Text 5 words-native_and_borrowed
Text 5 words-native_and_borrowedText 5 words-native_and_borrowed
Text 5 words-native_and_borrowed
 
Text 8 words-native_and_borrowed
Text 8 words-native_and_borrowedText 8 words-native_and_borrowed
Text 8 words-native_and_borrowed
 
Words: Native and Borrowed
Words: Native and BorrowedWords: Native and Borrowed
Words: Native and Borrowed
 
Text 8 words-native_and_borrowed
Text 8 words-native_and_borrowedText 8 words-native_and_borrowed
Text 8 words-native_and_borrowed
 
Words:Native and Borrowed
 Words:Native and Borrowed Words:Native and Borrowed
Words:Native and Borrowed
 
Language & gender presentation
Language & gender presentationLanguage & gender presentation
Language & gender presentation
 
Lindsey bertrand
Lindsey bertrandLindsey bertrand
Lindsey bertrand
 
Word forming proccess coinage
Word forming proccess coinageWord forming proccess coinage
Word forming proccess coinage
 
How does our language shape the way we
How does our language shape the way weHow does our language shape the way we
How does our language shape the way we
 
Perennial Dilemmas in English Education
Perennial Dilemmas in English EducationPerennial Dilemmas in English Education
Perennial Dilemmas in English Education
 
Language
LanguageLanguage
Language
 
Lexical change
Lexical change Lexical change
Lexical change
 
English language
English languageEnglish language
English language
 
Meaning, thought and reality: How categories influence thinking.
Meaning, thought and reality: How categories influence thinking.Meaning, thought and reality: How categories influence thinking.
Meaning, thought and reality: How categories influence thinking.
 
10 etymological-survey-of-the-english-word
10 etymological-survey-of-the-english-word10 etymological-survey-of-the-english-word
10 etymological-survey-of-the-english-word
 

Mehr von Binh Boong

Cau hoi on tap Tu tuong Ho Chi Minh
Cau hoi on tap Tu tuong Ho Chi MinhCau hoi on tap Tu tuong Ho Chi Minh
Cau hoi on tap Tu tuong Ho Chi MinhBinh Boong
 
Tu tuong Ho Chi Minh
Tu tuong Ho Chi MinhTu tuong Ho Chi Minh
Tu tuong Ho Chi MinhBinh Boong
 
Huong dan on thi mon lich su Dang cong san VN -GS. Le Mau Han
Huong dan on thi mon lich su Dang cong san VN -GS. Le Mau HanHuong dan on thi mon lich su Dang cong san VN -GS. Le Mau Han
Huong dan on thi mon lich su Dang cong san VN -GS. Le Mau HanBinh Boong
 
Huong dan su dung
Huong dan su dungHuong dan su dung
Huong dan su dungBinh Boong
 
Ke hoach to chuc Chuong trinh Cafe Hoc thuat Nhan van
Ke hoach to chuc Chuong trinh Cafe Hoc thuat Nhan vanKe hoach to chuc Chuong trinh Cafe Hoc thuat Nhan van
Ke hoach to chuc Chuong trinh Cafe Hoc thuat Nhan vanBinh Boong
 
Danh sach cac chuyen de bao cao
Danh sach cac chuyen de bao caoDanh sach cac chuyen de bao cao
Danh sach cac chuyen de bao caoBinh Boong
 
Huong dan su dung wordpress - Bao tang ky uc Xa hoi
Huong dan su dung wordpress - Bao tang ky uc Xa hoiHuong dan su dung wordpress - Bao tang ky uc Xa hoi
Huong dan su dung wordpress - Bao tang ky uc Xa hoiBinh Boong
 
Nhau thai trong tieng Stieng
Nhau thai trong tieng StiengNhau thai trong tieng Stieng
Nhau thai trong tieng StiengBinh Boong
 
Bài giảng Nhân học Hình ảnh - TS. Bùi Quang Thắng
Bài giảng Nhân học Hình ảnh - TS. Bùi Quang ThắngBài giảng Nhân học Hình ảnh - TS. Bùi Quang Thắng
Bài giảng Nhân học Hình ảnh - TS. Bùi Quang ThắngBinh Boong
 
Bất bình đẳng giới trong giáo dục - nội dung
Bất bình đẳng giới trong giáo dục - nội dungBất bình đẳng giới trong giáo dục - nội dung
Bất bình đẳng giới trong giáo dục - nội dungBinh Boong
 
Bất bình đẳng giới trong giáo dục - trang bìa
Bất bình đẳng giới trong giáo dục - trang bìaBất bình đẳng giới trong giáo dục - trang bìa
Bất bình đẳng giới trong giáo dục - trang bìaBinh Boong
 

Mehr von Binh Boong (11)

Cau hoi on tap Tu tuong Ho Chi Minh
Cau hoi on tap Tu tuong Ho Chi MinhCau hoi on tap Tu tuong Ho Chi Minh
Cau hoi on tap Tu tuong Ho Chi Minh
 
Tu tuong Ho Chi Minh
Tu tuong Ho Chi MinhTu tuong Ho Chi Minh
Tu tuong Ho Chi Minh
 
Huong dan on thi mon lich su Dang cong san VN -GS. Le Mau Han
Huong dan on thi mon lich su Dang cong san VN -GS. Le Mau HanHuong dan on thi mon lich su Dang cong san VN -GS. Le Mau Han
Huong dan on thi mon lich su Dang cong san VN -GS. Le Mau Han
 
Huong dan su dung
Huong dan su dungHuong dan su dung
Huong dan su dung
 
Ke hoach to chuc Chuong trinh Cafe Hoc thuat Nhan van
Ke hoach to chuc Chuong trinh Cafe Hoc thuat Nhan vanKe hoach to chuc Chuong trinh Cafe Hoc thuat Nhan van
Ke hoach to chuc Chuong trinh Cafe Hoc thuat Nhan van
 
Danh sach cac chuyen de bao cao
Danh sach cac chuyen de bao caoDanh sach cac chuyen de bao cao
Danh sach cac chuyen de bao cao
 
Huong dan su dung wordpress - Bao tang ky uc Xa hoi
Huong dan su dung wordpress - Bao tang ky uc Xa hoiHuong dan su dung wordpress - Bao tang ky uc Xa hoi
Huong dan su dung wordpress - Bao tang ky uc Xa hoi
 
Nhau thai trong tieng Stieng
Nhau thai trong tieng StiengNhau thai trong tieng Stieng
Nhau thai trong tieng Stieng
 
Bài giảng Nhân học Hình ảnh - TS. Bùi Quang Thắng
Bài giảng Nhân học Hình ảnh - TS. Bùi Quang ThắngBài giảng Nhân học Hình ảnh - TS. Bùi Quang Thắng
Bài giảng Nhân học Hình ảnh - TS. Bùi Quang Thắng
 
Bất bình đẳng giới trong giáo dục - nội dung
Bất bình đẳng giới trong giáo dục - nội dungBất bình đẳng giới trong giáo dục - nội dung
Bất bình đẳng giới trong giáo dục - nội dung
 
Bất bình đẳng giới trong giáo dục - trang bìa
Bất bình đẳng giới trong giáo dục - trang bìaBất bình đẳng giới trong giáo dục - trang bìa
Bất bình đẳng giới trong giáo dục - trang bìa
 

Kürzlich hochgeladen

General views of Histopathology and step
General views of Histopathology and stepGeneral views of Histopathology and step
General views of Histopathology and stepobaje godwin sunday
 
DUST OF SNOW_BY ROBERT FROST_EDITED BY_ TANMOY MISHRA
DUST OF SNOW_BY ROBERT FROST_EDITED BY_ TANMOY MISHRADUST OF SNOW_BY ROBERT FROST_EDITED BY_ TANMOY MISHRA
DUST OF SNOW_BY ROBERT FROST_EDITED BY_ TANMOY MISHRATanmoy Mishra
 
PISA-VET launch_El Iza Mohamedou_19 March 2024.pptx
PISA-VET launch_El Iza Mohamedou_19 March 2024.pptxPISA-VET launch_El Iza Mohamedou_19 March 2024.pptx
PISA-VET launch_El Iza Mohamedou_19 March 2024.pptxEduSkills OECD
 
5 charts on South Africa as a source country for international student recrui...
5 charts on South Africa as a source country for international student recrui...5 charts on South Africa as a source country for international student recrui...
5 charts on South Africa as a source country for international student recrui...CaraSkikne1
 
UKCGE Parental Leave Discussion March 2024
UKCGE Parental Leave Discussion March 2024UKCGE Parental Leave Discussion March 2024
UKCGE Parental Leave Discussion March 2024UKCGE
 
CapTechU Doctoral Presentation -March 2024 slides.pptx
CapTechU Doctoral Presentation -March 2024 slides.pptxCapTechU Doctoral Presentation -March 2024 slides.pptx
CapTechU Doctoral Presentation -March 2024 slides.pptxCapitolTechU
 
CAULIFLOWER BREEDING 1 Parmar pptx
CAULIFLOWER BREEDING 1 Parmar pptxCAULIFLOWER BREEDING 1 Parmar pptx
CAULIFLOWER BREEDING 1 Parmar pptxSaurabhParmar42
 
Education and training program in the hospital APR.pptx
Education and training program in the hospital APR.pptxEducation and training program in the hospital APR.pptx
Education and training program in the hospital APR.pptxraviapr7
 
In - Vivo and In - Vitro Correlation.pptx
In - Vivo and In - Vitro Correlation.pptxIn - Vivo and In - Vitro Correlation.pptx
In - Vivo and In - Vitro Correlation.pptxAditiChauhan701637
 
M-2- General Reactions of amino acids.pptx
M-2- General Reactions of amino acids.pptxM-2- General Reactions of amino acids.pptx
M-2- General Reactions of amino acids.pptxDr. Santhosh Kumar. N
 
Philosophy of Education and Educational Philosophy
Philosophy of Education  and Educational PhilosophyPhilosophy of Education  and Educational Philosophy
Philosophy of Education and Educational PhilosophyShuvankar Madhu
 
Practical Research 1: Lesson 8 Writing the Thesis Statement.pptx
Practical Research 1: Lesson 8 Writing the Thesis Statement.pptxPractical Research 1: Lesson 8 Writing the Thesis Statement.pptx
Practical Research 1: Lesson 8 Writing the Thesis Statement.pptxKatherine Villaluna
 
Diploma in Nursing Admission Test Question Solution 2023.pdf
Diploma in Nursing Admission Test Question Solution 2023.pdfDiploma in Nursing Admission Test Question Solution 2023.pdf
Diploma in Nursing Admission Test Question Solution 2023.pdfMohonDas
 
The Singapore Teaching Practice document
The Singapore Teaching Practice documentThe Singapore Teaching Practice document
The Singapore Teaching Practice documentXsasf Sfdfasd
 
CHUYÊN ĐỀ DẠY THÊM TIẾNG ANH LỚP 11 - GLOBAL SUCCESS - NĂM HỌC 2023-2024 - HK...
CHUYÊN ĐỀ DẠY THÊM TIẾNG ANH LỚP 11 - GLOBAL SUCCESS - NĂM HỌC 2023-2024 - HK...CHUYÊN ĐỀ DẠY THÊM TIẾNG ANH LỚP 11 - GLOBAL SUCCESS - NĂM HỌC 2023-2024 - HK...
CHUYÊN ĐỀ DẠY THÊM TIẾNG ANH LỚP 11 - GLOBAL SUCCESS - NĂM HỌC 2023-2024 - HK...Nguyen Thanh Tu Collection
 
Ultra structure and life cycle of Plasmodium.pptx
Ultra structure and life cycle of Plasmodium.pptxUltra structure and life cycle of Plasmodium.pptx
Ultra structure and life cycle of Plasmodium.pptxDr. Asif Anas
 
How to Use api.constrains ( ) in Odoo 17
How to Use api.constrains ( ) in Odoo 17How to Use api.constrains ( ) in Odoo 17
How to Use api.constrains ( ) in Odoo 17Celine George
 

Kürzlich hochgeladen (20)

General views of Histopathology and step
General views of Histopathology and stepGeneral views of Histopathology and step
General views of Histopathology and step
 
DUST OF SNOW_BY ROBERT FROST_EDITED BY_ TANMOY MISHRA
DUST OF SNOW_BY ROBERT FROST_EDITED BY_ TANMOY MISHRADUST OF SNOW_BY ROBERT FROST_EDITED BY_ TANMOY MISHRA
DUST OF SNOW_BY ROBERT FROST_EDITED BY_ TANMOY MISHRA
 
PISA-VET launch_El Iza Mohamedou_19 March 2024.pptx
PISA-VET launch_El Iza Mohamedou_19 March 2024.pptxPISA-VET launch_El Iza Mohamedou_19 March 2024.pptx
PISA-VET launch_El Iza Mohamedou_19 March 2024.pptx
 
5 charts on South Africa as a source country for international student recrui...
5 charts on South Africa as a source country for international student recrui...5 charts on South Africa as a source country for international student recrui...
5 charts on South Africa as a source country for international student recrui...
 
UKCGE Parental Leave Discussion March 2024
UKCGE Parental Leave Discussion March 2024UKCGE Parental Leave Discussion March 2024
UKCGE Parental Leave Discussion March 2024
 
Prelims of Kant get Marx 2.0: a general politics quiz
Prelims of Kant get Marx 2.0: a general politics quizPrelims of Kant get Marx 2.0: a general politics quiz
Prelims of Kant get Marx 2.0: a general politics quiz
 
CapTechU Doctoral Presentation -March 2024 slides.pptx
CapTechU Doctoral Presentation -March 2024 slides.pptxCapTechU Doctoral Presentation -March 2024 slides.pptx
CapTechU Doctoral Presentation -March 2024 slides.pptx
 
CAULIFLOWER BREEDING 1 Parmar pptx
CAULIFLOWER BREEDING 1 Parmar pptxCAULIFLOWER BREEDING 1 Parmar pptx
CAULIFLOWER BREEDING 1 Parmar pptx
 
Education and training program in the hospital APR.pptx
Education and training program in the hospital APR.pptxEducation and training program in the hospital APR.pptx
Education and training program in the hospital APR.pptx
 
In - Vivo and In - Vitro Correlation.pptx
In - Vivo and In - Vitro Correlation.pptxIn - Vivo and In - Vitro Correlation.pptx
In - Vivo and In - Vitro Correlation.pptx
 
M-2- General Reactions of amino acids.pptx
M-2- General Reactions of amino acids.pptxM-2- General Reactions of amino acids.pptx
M-2- General Reactions of amino acids.pptx
 
Personal Resilience in Project Management 2 - TV Edit 1a.pdf
Personal Resilience in Project Management 2 - TV Edit 1a.pdfPersonal Resilience in Project Management 2 - TV Edit 1a.pdf
Personal Resilience in Project Management 2 - TV Edit 1a.pdf
 
Philosophy of Education and Educational Philosophy
Philosophy of Education  and Educational PhilosophyPhilosophy of Education  and Educational Philosophy
Philosophy of Education and Educational Philosophy
 
Practical Research 1: Lesson 8 Writing the Thesis Statement.pptx
Practical Research 1: Lesson 8 Writing the Thesis Statement.pptxPractical Research 1: Lesson 8 Writing the Thesis Statement.pptx
Practical Research 1: Lesson 8 Writing the Thesis Statement.pptx
 
Diploma in Nursing Admission Test Question Solution 2023.pdf
Diploma in Nursing Admission Test Question Solution 2023.pdfDiploma in Nursing Admission Test Question Solution 2023.pdf
Diploma in Nursing Admission Test Question Solution 2023.pdf
 
The Singapore Teaching Practice document
The Singapore Teaching Practice documentThe Singapore Teaching Practice document
The Singapore Teaching Practice document
 
CHUYÊN ĐỀ DẠY THÊM TIẾNG ANH LỚP 11 - GLOBAL SUCCESS - NĂM HỌC 2023-2024 - HK...
CHUYÊN ĐỀ DẠY THÊM TIẾNG ANH LỚP 11 - GLOBAL SUCCESS - NĂM HỌC 2023-2024 - HK...CHUYÊN ĐỀ DẠY THÊM TIẾNG ANH LỚP 11 - GLOBAL SUCCESS - NĂM HỌC 2023-2024 - HK...
CHUYÊN ĐỀ DẠY THÊM TIẾNG ANH LỚP 11 - GLOBAL SUCCESS - NĂM HỌC 2023-2024 - HK...
 
Ultra structure and life cycle of Plasmodium.pptx
Ultra structure and life cycle of Plasmodium.pptxUltra structure and life cycle of Plasmodium.pptx
Ultra structure and life cycle of Plasmodium.pptx
 
Finals of Kant get Marx 2.0 : a general politics quiz
Finals of Kant get Marx 2.0 : a general politics quizFinals of Kant get Marx 2.0 : a general politics quiz
Finals of Kant get Marx 2.0 : a general politics quiz
 
How to Use api.constrains ( ) in Odoo 17
How to Use api.constrains ( ) in Odoo 17How to Use api.constrains ( ) in Odoo 17
How to Use api.constrains ( ) in Odoo 17
 

Snow In Eskimo Language

  • 1. Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf's hypothesis of linguistic relativism holds that the language we speak both affects and reflects our view of the world. This idea is also reflected in the concept behind General Semantics. In a popular 1940 article on the subject, Whorf referred to Eskimo languages having seven distinct words for snow. Later writers inflated the figure in sensationalized stories: by 1978, the number quoted had reached 50, and on February 9, 1984, an editorial in The New York Times gave the number as one hundred.[2] The idea that Eskimos had so many words for snow has given rise to the idea that Eskimos viewed snow very differently from people of other cultures. For example, when it snows, others see snow, but Eskimos could see any manifestation of their great and varied vocabulary. Vulgarized versions of Whorf's views hold not only that Eskimo speakers can choose among several snow words, but that they do not categorize all seven (or however many) as "snow": to them, each word is supposedly a separate concept. Thus language is thought to impose a particular view of the world — not just for Eskimo languages, but for all groups. "Eskimo" words for snow by Steven J. Derose, January 1999. Last updated September, 2005. Like most of us, I've heard many times about how many words people from snowy cultures have for snow. I've always found it implausible, but recently I found a beautiful account of this urban myth in Geoffrey K. Pullum's book The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax (University of Chicago Press, 1991; and of course available from Amazon) -- I highly recommend this book. Since it also includes some relatively hard facts, and since I really enjoyed reading it, I thought it worth putting up this page about it. Pullum cites a detailed article on the phenomenon, that I have not yet obtained: Laura Martin, 1986. "Eskimo Words for Snow: A case study in the genesis and decay of an anthropological example." American Anthropologist 88(2), pp. 418-423. She traces the myth to Franz Boas' Introduction to The Handbook of North American Indians (at least 15 volumes, sadly out of print and going for $75+ per volume used). In that introduction he says merely (as described by Pullum on p. 162): just as English uses derived terms for a variety of forms of water (liquid, lake, river, brook, rain, dew, wave, foam) that might be formed by derivational morphology [suffixes and other such stuff] from a single root meaning 'water' in some other language, so Eskimo uses the apparently distinct roots aput 'snow on the ground', gana 'falling snow', piqsirpoq 'drifting snow', and qimuqsuq 'a snow drift'. From there Martin and Pullum trace the steady growth of exaggeration, starting with Whorf's much quoted 1940 article that grows the word-count magically to 7, and eventually reaching sources claiming totals as high as 400. Just a few weeks ago I sat across a table at dinner from
  • 2. someone claiming to actually know "all 57 Eskimo words for snow" -- but I had neither a native speaker nor Pullum's article at hand. As Pullum deftly points out, the traditional claim is "Eskimos have N words for snow" (for growing N) -- and every part of that claim is problematic: • There is no single language "Eskimo", just as there is no single language "Indian". And, like "Indian", "Eskimo" is not a very good name: it lumps together two major cultural groups, the Inuit and Aleut, and ignores major differences (including huge language variation) within each group. • How do we count "words"? As a computational linguist (for you co-nerds, technically that would be "corpus linguist", and my dissertation was on Hidden Markov Models for part-of-speech disambiguation in American English and Koine Greek), I am innately suspicious of any claim about enumerations of "words". What is a word, anyway? There is no single definition (see below). • What qualifies a word as being "for snow"? Surely it cannot mean the word must have exactly the same range of applications as English "snow", or Eskimo surely has no words for snow at all. Does Eskimo have a word for the grey mist in a poor TV picture? Just how wide or narrow do we draw the boundaries, and how do we ensure we're drawing them the same in the languages being compared? What's a word, really? Just deciding what we mean by "word" is subtle. For example: • How do we count "go", "goes", and "went"? This is a way worse problem in many other languages than in English; I learned several hundred forms per verb in Greek, and my best estimate when studying Michif (related to Cree) was 5000 forms per verb. • How do we count "dog" as in woof-woof, versus "dog" as in what you do to close a hatch on a submarine, or to follow someone? What of "snow" meaning "to confuse"? • How do we count "link end", "link-end", and "linkend", and other compound words? When does a common phrase or idiom become a word? • How do we count "love" versus "lovesong", "lovebird", "lovesick", and many more? • Inuit and Aleut are agglutinative languages: they tend to assemble large words out of many parts. English is more likely to use multiple "words" instead: "new fallen snow". This pattern has nothing to do with snow; it's just part of how English, Inuit, and Aleut differ in general. Purveyors of the myth seem bound to include as many faintly snow-related phenomena as possible when deciding which Eskimo words count, but to require perfect synonymy to "snow" when deciding about English (thus leaving us but one "word for snow"). One example of this conveniently inconsistent definition is from a list of 20 ostensible Eskimo snow-words that came to Pullum: igluqsaq. This is a compound word meaning 'house-building material' (note the familiar 'iglu' at the beginning): it can mean plywood or brick just as well as snow. If we pulled the same trick with English, we would start counting words like "etiology" (a
  • 3. slip on snow can cause injury), "projectile" (you can throw snowballs), "food" (you can eat snow as long as it's white), and so on. Hmmm. So how many already? Pullum cites several sources on how many words certain Inuit dialects actually have for snow. The two main ones are: • The Dictionary of the West Greenlandic Eskimo Language (C. W. Schultz-Lorentzen, Copenhagan: Reitzels, 1927) gives just two words: qanik for snowflakes in the air, and aput for snow on the ground. • The Yup'ik Eskimo Dictionary (Steven A. Jacobson, Fairbanks: University of Alaska, 1984) has, according to Pullum's colleague Anthony Woodbury, about 24 if you're very generous. By "very generous", I mean including words for "stuff for sinking habitually into", "blizzard", "avalanche", and so on. So 24 seems to be the outer limit that could be defended, at least for Yup'ik. Unless there are speakers somewhere who make a living by coining new snow-words and selling them.... No one seems to have checked on that possibility. Oh yeah, does English have any words for snow? It's only fair to see how many snow-words we can find in English. I didn't even poke around the OED yet, but even if we skip the inflected forms (snows, snowed, snowing, snowy, snowness, snew, snewn,... well, we weren't going to count those anyway), there is still a veritable hail of terms: berg, cornice, crevasse, floe, frost, glacier, hail, hardpack, hoarfrost, ice, iceball, icecap, iceberg, ice field, icicle, powder, rime, snow, slush, sleet, snowball, snowcap Not to mention a blizzard of words for the parts of snow and for snow as a weather condition: avalanche, blizzard, dusting, flurry, ice crystal, ice storm And the list snowballs as we notice compound words related to snow (excluding snow-related objects like snowboards and snowshovels): snowball, snowbank, snowcapped, snowdrift, snowfall, snowflake, snowlike, snowman, snowstorm And let us not forget the storm of words that are spelled with a space in them: phrases that have (arguably, of course) become lexical items through frequent and distinctive use: freezing rain, new-fallen snow, yellow snow, glare ice, purple wax snow (and a host of others skiers can cite)
  • 4. I can't imagine I've listed anywhere near all the good candidates, but already that's 40. Which, by the way, is several more than the generous estimate for Inuit. If we were as generous as some are for Eskimo, beyond those we'd add etiology, construction material, food, weapon, toy, floor, projectile, sculpture, refrigerator, obstruction (reaching double the total for Inuit), and probably dozens more. And we haven't even considered any synonyms for "snow job" (a quick look in a thesaurus reveals over 100), "snow" on your TV, and being "snowed" under. And why should we care? It is the conclusions drawn from this bizarre claim that puzzle me most. One seemingly popular conclusion takes Whorf (of the "Sapir-Whorf hypothesis") farther than perhaps even Whorf would go, and suggests that such differences in vocabulary make cross-language communication fundamentally impossible, or even make a notion of any underlying reality (accessible or not) impossible. None of this of course follows. As Pullum again points out, anyone concerned about a particular subject has a proportionately detailed vocabulary for it. There is little surprising or interesting about this, and it doesn't seem to have much affect on communication, realism, or anything else beyond signalling that you are (or aren't) an expert on a precise topic: • I have precise words for things others would merely lump together and call "hypertext links". • In reading a book on knife sharpening, I just discovered formal terminology for bits of rock, carefully distinguished by diameters from 10 inches down to 0.00015 or so. They're also described here. • Wine tasters have another set of terms, far more detailed than I can use competently. • ... So if some language(s) did have many words for snow, it should be no more interesting than these other everyday cases. But if you think about it, people who live in ever-snowful lands may perhaps care no more about fine variations of snow, than we in warmer climes care about fine variations of grass or pavement: anything so constant disappears into the background and becomes less interesting. And meanwhile in Greek A similar common idea is that Greek is far better equipped to express "love" than English. We poor benighted Anglophones have (alas!) but a single word, while those deeply philosophical Greeks of old were blessed with four. And of course, they always used each one in precisely the same way, and never let them overlap (oh yeah? Guess which term the Septuagint uses of Amnon's feelings for Tamar in 2 Samuel 13:1-4). Again, we can find more words in English if we try to cover the same range as the 4 Greek words cover: adoration, affection, ardor, amourousness, attachment, caring, concern, cherishing, compassion, devotion, enamorement, fancy, favor, fondness, liking, love, lust, passion, tenderness -- to name but a few (19 to be precise).
  • 5. Perhaps the myth arises from our need to count, to draw boundaries, to categorize; to pretend things are simpler and clearer than they are. Oh well; that's my small contribution to de-bunking a linguistic legend. A few references • Inuit Words for Snow by David Mendosa. Includes a tongue-in-cheek list of about 100 fictional words for snow, and some correspondence with Steven Pinker, author of The Language Instinct. • The Linguist List has discussed these issues on various occasions. One notable occasion was volume 5, issue 1239 in 1994. It includes a nice piece by Anthony C. Woodbury, Counting Eskimo words for snow: A citizen's guide, which is also reposted here. • The relevant Wikipedia entry is also helpful. • Some discussion is provided by Stuart Derby here, along with a list of potential snow- words (most of them compounds). Back to home page of Steve DeRose or The Bible Technologies Group. or The Bible Technologies Group Working Groups. Or, contact me via email (fix the punctuation).