Benjamin Whorf has perhaps the best name recognition in psycholinguistics, being known for the Whorfian Hypothesis: the idea that the particular language you learn constrains the way you think about the world.
This hypothesis has made its way into popular culture (or, perhaps it predated Whorf). Many essays — and sometimes large sections of books — make a big deal of etymology. That is, the origin of a word is supposed to tell us something about culture. A popular example is the Mandarin word for “China” means, literally, “Center Country.” This is supposed to tell us something about how the Chinese view their place in the world.
Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t. But certainly in some cases etymology tells us nothing. Here’s a quote from “Formal Semantics” by Genarro Chierchia:
To make this point more vividly, take the word money. An important word indeed; where does it come from? What does its history reveal about the true meaning of money? It comes from Latin moneta, the past participle feminine of the verb moneo ‘to warn/to advice.’ Moneta was one of the canonical attributes of the Roman goddess Juno; Juno moneta is ‘the one who advises.’ What has Juno to do with money? Is it perhaps that her capacity to advise extends to finances? No. It so happens that in ancient Rome, the mint was right next to the temple of Juno. So people metonymically transferred Juno’s attribute to what was coming out of the mint. A fascinating historical fact that tells us something as to how word meanings may evolve; but it revelas no deep link between money and the capacity to advise.
Back to Chinese. Another good example is the word for turkey: huoji. Literally, it means “fire chicken.” Anyone who wants to make a story about how that explains the Chinese psyche is welcome to give it a shot.
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