From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!psych.toronto.edu!christo Tue Nov 19 11:09:08 EST 1991
Article 1212 of comp.ai.philosophy:
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Path: newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!psych.toronto.edu!christo
>From: christo@psych.toronto.edu (Christopher Green)
Subject: Re: Sapir-Whorf
Message-ID: <1991Nov6.163441.3770@psych.toronto.edu>
Organization: Department of Psychology, University of Toronto
References: <1991Nov4.202823.1328@news.larc.nasa.gov> <431@trwacs.UUCP> <91309.175700MORIARTY@NDSUVM1.BITNET>
Date: Wed, 6 Nov 1991 16:34:41 GMT

In article <91309.175700MORIARTY@NDSUVM1.BITNET> MORIARTY@NDSUVM1.BITNET
 writes:
>The original document on Sapir-Whorf containted a comment about
>the absence of a future tense in Proto-Indo-European.  The author
>concluded that causal reasoning was therefore impossible.
>
>Note carefully.  Modern English does not contain an absolute
>future tense.  Modern English can form a future concept only
>with the help of auxiliary verbs.
>
>Should the academic world conclude that causal reasoning is
>impossible in Modern English? :-)
>
You might be interested in a battle which raged through the journal _Cognitiion_
a few years ago about whether the lack of a subjunctive mood in Chinese means
that the Chinese are unable to accomplish certain kinds of conditional
reasoning. (Of course it doesn't, but I was astounded to scholars consider
this as a real possibility).


-- 
Christopher D. Green                christo@psych.toronto.edu
Psychology Department               cgreen@lake.scar.utoronto.ca
University of Toronto
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