Exercise 1
Date: 2015-10-07; view: 482.
Discuss the main ideas of the text in team work with your classmates and the teacher.
Discussion Questions:
1. How does Sapir relate linguistics to these disciplines: anthropology, culture history, sociology, psychology, philosophy, physics, physiology? What connections does he make?
2. What does the author mean when he observes that "...the network of cultural patterns of civilisation is indexed in the language which expresses that civilisation"? (paragraph 5)
3. "Language is a guide to social reality." (paragraph 6) How? Give examples from English or your native language.
4. "No two languages are ever sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the same social reality. The worlds in which different societies live are distinct worlds, not merely the same world with different labels." (paragraph 6). Do you agree with the author's view? Why? Why not?
5. "We see and hear and otherwise experience very largely as we do because the language habits of our community predispose certain choices of interpretation.'" (paragraph 7). What are the implications of this view?
6. Briefly explain in your own words what Sapir means when he says "...we may think of language as the symbolic guide to culture." (paragraph 8)
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| While the professor ___________ about the importance of language mechanisms for the study historical problems, the students __________ notes . (to tell) (to make) | | | Exercise 4 |