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lil  ·  3817 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Give me a great quote from something you're reading, have read recently.

In a very recent New Yorker article, Adam Gopnik questions Whorfianism, a theory named after the author, Benjamin Lee Whorf, an amateur linguist. Whorfianism came to mean the idea that our language forces us to see the world a certain way, and that different languages impose different world views on their speakers. Gopnik says

    In truth, language seems less like a series of cells in which we are imprisoned than like a set of tools that help us escape: some of the files are rusty; some will open any door; and most you have to jiggle around in the lock. But sooner or later, most words work.

from Word Magic: How much really gets lost in translation? BY Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, May 26, 2014 (full-text not available on line to non-subscribers)