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

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Date Posted: 21:03:05 03/13/08 Thu
Author: Erin Risch
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

Perhaps we shouldn't overlook the practical side, thought. French is just a more abstract language than English and it has far fewer words, so it often takes several words to say something we say with one word in English. For instance, instead of saying calling it a sunset, the French essentially say that the sun goes to bed. :) But they have made "to lynch" into "franglais," I think, with the verb "lyncher." And they have plenty of words for both mob and violence.

But I think you'd be right in saying that a lack of a word for lynching would be an symptom of wishing to hide mob violence. It would be interesting to see if words lynching and mob violence appear more frequently in post-Christian cultures.

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