The Great Eskimo I I Vocabulary Hoax I and Other Irrev - PDF document

The Great Eskimo I I Vocabulary Hoax I the Study i The University of Chicago Press Chicago and London 158 ' Chapter Eighteen Pullum, Geoffrey K. 1988. Citation etiquette beyond NLLT 6.579-88. Rappapart, Malka and Bcth Levin. 1986. What con Project for Cognitive 1. The relotinnal structure oJ' rejlexive clauses: Evidence Itoliur~, Sapir, Edward. C. C. Uhlenbeck, Het Passieve van het Verbum Transitivum of van het Verbum Actionis in 'I'alen van Noord-Amerika, IJAL 1.82-86. great Eskimo vocabulary hoax to accept something becomes almost impossible get the acceptance rescinded. The persistent interestingness and symbolic overrides any lack of factuality. For instance, reptiles that soon died out they were unsuccessful the industrious mammals useful to give you going but powerful idiot or huge but slow-adapting 'dinosaur'? The discoveries of the the intelligence, agility, endothermicity, longevity, dinosauria have term 'dinosaur' and its supposed associations; adaptive genius for hundreds of and were than mammals have It is ought to a certain or at the academic profession tendency to create stable but completely of its and hang on to them grimly, transmitting them textbook to textbook 0. by john Gail and Jeanne of the good to be social science' (1987), 1-1 1). It isiabout assertion that frequency of lynchings the American early part of this century cotton, a 'fact' that frequently been dence for frustration-aggression theory. et al. show that 162 ' constantly changing, self-regenerating nology, like alone against the hideous space creature the movie Alieil~; that the everywhere once got loose tht: to kill. Martin presented her paper annual meeting U.C. eventually (after struggle the paper, interesting quotes) the 'Research Reports' AAA's journal (Martin 1986). This ought to enough for to get widespread recognition concerned, Martin publication of the familiar claim about the Eskimo conceptual scheme: hundreds wonderland, the quintessential demonstration of how so differently the alleged lexical extravagance comports so well with other facets polysynthetic perversity: lending their strangers; eating seal blubber; out to be believe almost anything about such says Martin, buried racist tale she tells is scholarly sloppiness popular eagerness to embrace exotic facts about evidence. The that the the multiple is based on almost nothing of accidentally developed hoax cal linguistics community The original source Boas' introduction The Handbook North American Indians ( all Boas says low-key and slightly ill-explained discussion derived terms for things is that just as English uses variety of (liquid, lake, river, brook, rain, dew, wave, niight be formed by derivational morphology from some other language, so Eskimo uses the apparently dis- The great Eskimo vocabulary hoax 163 tinct roots aput 'snow on the ground', gana 'falling snow', piqsir- that English these notions phrases involving the the words for lake, river, formed derivationally or peri- xenomor- phic fable have become What happened that Benjamin Lee Whorf, Connecticut language-fancier, picked his 1940 amateur linguistics article which was MIT's Technology Review in chemical engineering at MIT). too inclusive to an Eskimo, our Hartford Fire Insurance Company confidently an uncanny into the the hardy denizens (the more uncanny Hartford's social scene at slushy snow, wind-driven flying snow- whatever the To an word would say that slushy snow, for other kinds snow. (Whorf 1940; Carroll 1956, Whorf's article and reprinted could shake over the that Whorf's Boas' four (1: "falling", 2: other kinds Notice also about English speakers are false; fluffy and when partly when pelting down enough to make driving dan- gerous. Whorf's remark about his speech community is no than his glib generalizations about what things are "sensu- different" to the generic Eskimo. importance to split up conceptual sphere distinct classes . . ." (p. Imagine reading: "It that in fonts are great enough importance split up the con- ceptual sphere several distinct . ." those legendary, promiscuous, blubber- gnawing hunters ice-packs could permit something this trite be presented for contemplation. And actually, come to that likely be interested the traditional hunter's life must a kind constantly assumed background, like sand on the beach. And even cabulary hoax, more stupid hope that see the a cautionary tale remind- us of intellectual protection be found the careful use sources, the clear stant evaluation assumptions." Amen the great snow hoax falling standards in aca- also to a wider tendency (particularly afraid) toward fundamentally anti-intellectual "gee-whiz" modes discourse and increasing ignorance more battle that there law to (cf. chapter 14), elementary schools is no such can't"). the future, may be will be told that the dozens or scores snow. You, gentle reader, here and true to Expert On Language calling them than through the was in Irvine cam- pus, where annual Management Insti- tute. Not just lecturer at the Institute them somehow how) worked Eskimological falsehood into their greur Eskimo vocabulury tedious presentations management psychology and administrative time I attempted demur and at by lecturer and classmates upper hand over valor, just held my for a then quietly closed binder and the room. be a coward like Stand up and the speaker Greenlandic kimo Language meaning 'snow air' or 'snowflake', and meaning 'snow on the ground'. Then add that speaker can cite will not the most popular person in the room. wiIl effect roughly into a harpsichord a baroque recital. a blow The straight humun and with Zotti, Press, Chicago, Illinois. Franz. 1911. Introduction The handbook North Americun American Ethnology Bullerin Smithsonian Institution, Press, Lincoln, Brown, Roger. und The Free Language, thought, and realiry: Selected wrir- Benjamin Lee Whorf, Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Eastman, Carol. 1975. Aspects of language and culture, Chandler, San Francisco, California. 3rd printing, Chandler & Sharp, Novato, the principles langnuge, Harper & Martin, Laura. 1986. "Eskimo words for snow": A case study in the genesis and decay of an anthropological example, American ~nthro~do~ist 88, 2 (June), 418-23. Murray, Stephen 1987. Snowing canonical 89, 2 (June), 443-44. 170 ' list Moravcsik unfortunate fact is that even lists of words with meanings extensive acquaintance the people and the a sophisticated a full morphology and etymology if draw conclusions about can be counted many really? 1 know an answer. I a request from some students Texas who Woodbury together a list of in the Central Alaskan Yupik language synchronically unanalyzable and All of them are Dictio- naiy (University of Alaska, Fairbanks, of them weather-related words relating to rain, frost, other condi- some are denoting phenomena like and the ety- rnologizable that involves only roots unrelated nuturyug- 'new snow' nutar- 'new' and -yug- literally 'that which tends but they have apparently The list non- snow-referring roots (e.g. 'to sink apparently lexicalized usually glossed as referring (e.g. deep snow', etymologically something like ing into'). list has about stems and a variety than a transparently derived from these noun stem meaning 'drifting snow' to drift the list is still remarkably different from the remember, boasts not just also count nouns like hardpack expressive me- descriptive phrases flurry and (lusting, with idiosyncratic meanings like Woodbury's list are much more like these terms than mass nouns new and unusual varieties If it will more of au- The great vocubulury cocktail parties, it be Professor Anthony Woodbury Texas, Austin, Texas 78712) to endorse the claim that Eskimo language has about a fairly liberal what you count) for referring snow and related natural phenomena, events, dictionary searches languages are as far as I know. For my last effort clarify that the chap- ter above though I'm be taken to be. What actually about all the hundreds people making published contributions to the great was, or words were it, or the list. many people got the facts it is in the mentally lazy world we in today, hardly anyone think about trying to determine what facts are.