Page 105 - Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Language

Ethnography is seen by many scholars as trans- lation par excellence. Ethnographic translation fun- damentally encourages translator's notes (definiti- ons), which explain cultural ramifications of lexical items (or phrases) in native texts. Therefore, a care- fully documented encyclopedic lexicon may repre- sent an extensive set of translator's notes prepared in advance of the analysis of any future ethnographic texts.
An extension of these ideas is the recent focus on cultural schemata (Casson 1983). Schemata, recast into the lexical version of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, are folk theories often labeled by words (especially verbs) or phrases that usually require complex (e.g., up to monograph length and beyond) explanations or folk definitions.
4. Summary and Conclusions
The choice of the symbol system (e.g., language) affects the ease or difficulty with which one can talk about particular domains of cultural reality and solve problems in them. Thus the lexicon of language does provide a loosely laced straitjacket for thinking because it limits individuals to customary categories of thought. Only in this sense does it constrain thought.
At the same time language allows the inventive human mind to create alternative categorizations for solving new problems. The history of science and the rich diversity of thousands of human languages and cultures attests to the inventiveness of the human spirit.
True, the combinatorial possibilities in human language are enormous. Thus the very use of language results in a drift of meanings and with it inadvertent changes in world view. This process is analogous to genetic drift. But in addition there are analogues and historical examples of meaning mutations: conceptual revolutions and conversions.
However, these escapes from the mold of one's habitual language patterns are never easy—'... ano- maly is recognized only with difficulty' (Kuhn 1970). It usually takes genius to show the rest of humanity how to see the world in a new light, that is in new categories. In such conversion experiences the language is affected 'to the core' (Kuhn 1970)— specifically, most grammatical categories remain the same but geniuses revamp lexical categories in ways that facilitate new thought which the rest of humanity may in time follow.
See also: Thought and Language. Bibliography
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Sapir- Whorf Hypothesis
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