Newsgroups: comp.ai,comp.ai.philosophy,alt.consciousness,comp.ai.alife
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!howland.reston.ans.net!math.ohio-state.edu!jussieu.fr!fdn.fr!uunet!news.gun.de!gtnduss1.du.gtn.com!catzen!scot
From: scot@catzen.gun.de (Scot W. Stevenson)
Subject: Re: In defense of Whorf
Followup-To: comp.ai,comp.ai.philosophy,alt.consciousness,comp.ai.alife
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2]
Organization: Zebrafied Unicorn Betatesters (Germany)
Message-ID: <D5v372.17z@catzen.gun.de>
References: <3jgqon$gke@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu> <ALLEMANG.95Mar20161517@liasun11.epfl.ch>
Date: Wed, 22 Mar 1995 21:47:25 GMT
Lines: 22
Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu comp.ai:28368 comp.ai.philosophy:26183 comp.ai.alife:2818

Hello Dean,

: An even more careful examination reported by Geoff Pullum in _The
: Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax_ shows that in fact, this `datum' has
: rather a dubious history - the number reported as 30 above has
: appeared in print from as few as 8 to as many as 300 (if memory
: serves- I don't have the volume in front of me).  

Another cute example is the obvious fact that Germans are better at using
computers (or at least at thinking about them), since they have more words 
for, say, keyboards. Germans distinguish between the 'Kvertie' and 'Kvertz'
keyboards in everyday speech. Americans, who's language at most gives them
the ability to perceive a single keyboard, the qwerty, are less prepared to 
deal with modern technology.

Not my own example, I hasten to add, but I forgot where I got it from.

Y, Scot

--
          Scot W. Stevenson  scot@catzen.gun.de  Essen, Germany
    Television is what will happen to you if you don't have a computer
