Re: What does vocabulary tell us about a culture? -- Mimetic Theory and Literary Study

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Date Posted: 13:29:30 03/12/08 Wed
Author: CS Holden
Subject: Re: What does vocabulary tell us about a culture?
In reply to: Betsy Peters 's message, "What does vocabulary tell us about a culture?" on 10:18:13 03/11/08 Tue

I think the absence of a French word for "sudden and convulsive violence" is a bit of a red herring. Couldn't a culture mask an act of violence by omitting any possible reference to it in its language? Maybe the logic is a bit Orwellian, but if language is a vehicle for thought (and thus an inherent masking of thought), then it makes sense for people to think they are removing the contagion by removing the word. The idea is maybe to eliminate the possibility of violence by eliminating the concept of violence, which strikes me as an impossibility. To remove all references to violence--even specifically sudden and convulsive violence--is to remove a great deal of history.

Particularly with the French, whose history contains such doosies as the French Revolution(s), I think maybe we can accept their word "revolte" (insurrection) as an equivalent. But I'm not a French scholar, so I can't be sure.

As for America, we're certainly a nation whose conscience can and has become a stumbling block. We can be hyper-conscious of "witch hunts" and "lynchings," to the point of seeing such things even in the tamest conditions. Written into our judicial code is the idea that people on trial are "innocent until proven guilty," but frankly, even in the legal system we can find something like the sacrificial mechanism. Just think about the time Timothy McVeigh was executed, or the last time a city had to quell a riot. From time to time, individuals are still beaten to death for seemingly no reason by large groups of people, and the ensuing media storm often makes us confront the reality of violence. Ironic, too, that we hear people all the time expressing their shock that "things like this still happen," or that "it happened in such a small, peaceful town."

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Replies:

Re: What does vocabulary tell us about a culture? -- Erin Risch, 21:03:05 03/13/08 Thu

Re: What does vocabulary tell us about a culture? -- Jonathan Dunn, 10:48:49 03/16/08 Sun