Posted by Martin G. on July 12, 1999 at 12:25:15:
In Reply to: Re: Shooting the messenger posted by Nick on July 12, 1999 at 12:15:50:
What I love about you, Nick, is the huge effort you make to engage with us all.
For those unused to linguistic debates, BTW, the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is that language influences thought; the strong version is that language determines how you think. So, for example, Vance postulates a society where mentality is ruled by which language one speaks ("Pao").
In passing, Nick, Pinker is quite rude ("all wrong, wrong, wrong") about that strong hypothesis, both in his book "The Language Instinct" and at lectures and in conversation.
Personally, I think Pinker's right; but he just ain't soft on it!