4 INGLÉS

práctica

ENGLISH LINGUISTICS: GRAMMAR

2 TEXT ANALYSIS

A common example purportedly documenting the inextricable linkage of language, culture, and
thought refers to “Eskimo words for snow”. (1) According to this example, undifferentiated Eskimo
languages are credited with some variable number of unique words for snow and are compared to
English, which has but one. (2) As most commonly expressed, the example refers to the power that
cultural interests or setting have on the structure of language. (3) A somewhat more sophisticated
version applies the putative Eskimo categorization of snow to theories of grammatical influence on
perception. (4) Other examples of vocabulary elaboration are sometimes used for similar explanatory
purposes, but none is as widely cited as this one. (5) Such popularity is at once ironic and unfortunate
because the evolution of the example, a curious sequence of distortions and inaccuracies, offers both
a case study in the creation of an oral tradition and an object lesson on the hazards of superficial
scholarship. (6)
The earliest reference to Eskimos and snow was apparently made by Franz Boas. (7) Among many
examples of cross-linguistic variation in the patterns of form/meaning association, Boas presents a
brief citation of four lexically unrelated words for snow in Eskimo: aput ‘snow on the ground’, qana
‘falling snow’, piqsirpoq ‘drifting snow’, and qimuqsuq ‘a snow drift’. (8) In this casual example, Boas
makes little distinction among “roots”, “words”, and “independent terms”. (9) He intends to illustrate the
noncomparability of language structures, not to examine their cultural or cognitive implications. (10)
The example became inextricably identified with Benjamin Whorf. (11) Although for Boas the example
illustrated a similarity between English and Eskimo, Whorf reorients it to contrast them. (12) It is a
minor diversion in his article “Science and linguistics”, a discussion of pervasive semantic categories
such as time and space, and he develops it no further, here or elsewhere in his writings. (13)
Of particular significance is Whorf’s failure to cite specific data, numbers, or sources. (14) His English
glosses suggest as many as five words but not the same set given by Boas. (15) Although Whorf’s
source is uncertain, if he did rely on Boas, his apparently casual revision of numbers and glosses are
but the first mistreatments to which the original data have been subjected. (16)
Anthropological fascination with the example is traceable to two influential textbooks written in
the late 1950s and adopted in a variety of disciplines well into the 1970s. (17) In the first, The Silent
Language, Edward Hall inexplicably describes the Eskimo data as nouns and, although his argument
implies quite a large inventory, specific numbers are not provided. (18) In the second, Roger Brown’s
Words and Things, the author claims precisely “three Eskimo words for snow” but his discussion
illustrates a creeping carelessness about the actual linguistic facts of the example. (19)
With the passing of time, textbook references to the example have reached such proliferation that
no complete inventory seems possible, but examination of a representative set reveals common
features: lack or inaccuracy of citations; applications of the example to diverse and contradictory
theoretical purposes; wholesale reanalysis of the example and its history. (20) Casual classroom use
is startlingly frequent and much more often accompanied by apocryphal numbers, which usually
range from about a dozen to more than one hundred. (21) The gradual filtering of the example into
the educated lay population has established its vitality beyond university walls, from nine Eskimo
words for snow in a trivia encyclopedia to a local television references to “two hundred words” during
winter snow forecasts. (22)
[From L. Martin, “Eskimo words for snow”, adapted]
 INGLÉS 5
supuestos

QUESTIONS

1. Nouns and Noun Phrases

a) Nominalisation. Find all the nouns in the first paragraph which have resulted from a process
of affixation or conversion and indicate the process (e.g., deverbal, deadjectival).

2. Identify all the noun phrases in sentences (4) and (16) bearing in mind that one noun phrase may
have another as constituent. For each noun phrase, pick out the noun head.

3. Clause Patterns and Subordination

a) Objects and complements. In the following examples identify the objects (either direct or
indirect) and complements (either subject complement or object complement) and indicate
the pattern of complementation (intransitive, intensive, monotransitive, di-transitive,
complex-transitive):

(i) Such popularity is at once ironic and unfortunate.

(ii) The evolution of the example offers a case study in the creation of an oral tradition.

(iii) Whorf relied on Boas.

(iv) Hall inexplicably describes the Eskimo data as nouns.

(v) The lecturer told them that Eskimos have many words for snow.

(vi) The paths of linguistics and psycholinguistics coincided at first.

4. Subordinate clauses can be finite and non-finite and can have various functions (nominal,
adverbial, relative, comparative). Identify four finite and four non-finite clauses and indicate their
function.

5. Analysis

a) Analyse the underlined noun phrase in (1) using a tree-diagram.

6. Text Exploitation

Retaining and using vocabulary is one of the main problems for students. Activities tend to be
very specific from a lexical point of view, e.g., means of transport, technology and computers,
but more importantly, they should be meaningful to students, that is, related to their everyday
experience. Prepare a 20-30 minute vocabulary-building activity in which lists of related words
are elicited from groups of students drawing on their knowledge and experience.