http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/04/13/language-and-art-in-the-navajo-universe Comments On: Consensus, the Navajo, and Fourth-Person Pronouns by Brendan Kiley en-us Copyright 2013 The Stranger. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, The Stranger readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact The Stranger. webmaster@thestranger.com (The Stranger Webmaster) Fri, 24 May 2013 00:00:01 -0700 Fri, 24 May 2013 01:45:00 -0700 Foundation http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss
http://tinyurl.com/c4yhqo6

Posted by michijo]]> Sun, 15 Apr 2012 21:00:32 -0700 The Stranger Like L. Margaret says above, the presence or absence of a grammatical feature doesn't say much at all about a culture.
Posted by Phil H]]> Sat, 14 Apr 2012 02:16:59 -0700 The Stranger Posted by johnnie]]> Fri, 13 Apr 2012 20:12:33 -0700 The Stranger
And here they say Seattleites are passive aggressive!
Posted by Free Lunch]]> Fri, 13 Apr 2012 19:08:17 -0700 The Stranger
However, it is very hard to write a book in French using such non-gender words. I remember when Elizabeth Vonarburg tried it. Still have the painting of her cat from the convention where she won an award for it.

@11 correct. You can still see the root in the German from which we got it.
Posted by Will in Seattle]]> Fri, 13 Apr 2012 16:43:55 -0700 The Stranger
Anthropology, sociology, and continental philosophy have yet to get on the clue bus about this. Part of the reason they are so behind-hand is exactly the behavior you demonstrate -- appealing to self-styled authorities (as if we're supposed to be persuaded because Saussure said it from his armchair) rather than looking at actual data.


Posted by Margaret L.]]> Fri, 13 Apr 2012 16:08:00 -0700 The Stranger Posted by Sachi]]> Fri, 13 Apr 2012 15:52:29 -0700 The Stranger
Also @9, that's news to me. I think the Lacanians, the Saussurians, and the Levi-Straussians (that's an ugly form) would really strongly disagree with your links. Hell, Habermas would disagree with that claim in some fundamental ways. This isn't a settled dispute in the realm of anthropology, philosophy, psychology, or social politics. I doubt it's as settled as all that in linguistics.
Posted by zobot]]> Fri, 13 Apr 2012 15:34:13 -0700 The Stranger
Witherspoon may have his facts correct about Navajo culture; he may have his facts correct about Navajo grammar. But the two probably have sod-all to do with each other. For some examples of how attempts to connect grammar and culture are almost always wrong, start with these:

http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=…

http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=…

http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=…

For more, on the Language Log website you can click on "Categories," select "Language and Culture," and browse.
Posted by Margaret L.]]> Fri, 13 Apr 2012 15:19:05 -0700 The Stranger Posted by Unregistered User]]> Fri, 13 Apr 2012 15:13:38 -0700 The Stranger y'all - you

all y'all - you (plural)
Posted by fairly.unbalanced]]> Fri, 13 Apr 2012 14:54:03 -0700 The Stranger Posted by TVDinner]]> Fri, 13 Apr 2012 14:22:22 -0700 The Stranger Posted by Calpete]]> Fri, 13 Apr 2012 14:16:37 -0700 The Stranger French: "Il fait beau."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impersonal_…
Posted by Central Scrutinizer]]> Fri, 13 Apr 2012 14:09:01 -0700 The Stranger Posted by please explain]]> Fri, 13 Apr 2012 13:59:36 -0700 The Stranger
There is something quite similar in French with the use of on. It conjugates in the third person but is one step further removed from il or elle. Strictly speaking it refers to a hypothetical individual but in practice it serves as a nuanced way to distance the speaker from a proposed action "On pourrait dire...", one could say, with a Gallic shrug.
Posted by Backyard Bombardier]]> Fri, 13 Apr 2012 13:26:51 -0700 The Stranger
Not a perfect match, but it is sometimes used that way. Often used with hypothetical terms such as were, could, would.
Posted by modrachlan srarmons]]> Fri, 13 Apr 2012 13:08:31 -0700 The Stranger