On the Likelihood of Likeness

Marc Ch. Dupuis
SURFnet, Utrecht

From a philosophical point of view the different ways in which different languages can express similar types of meaningful messages is a real challenge as the differences raise the question as to whether speakers and listeners of different languages contemplate the world differently, or even think differently. For example, many if not most languages possess means to indicate time and space and, in particular, action and movement in time and space from the perspective of the main subject, in its semantical and grammatical senses. It is interesting, however, to consider how even within one language family the various descendants of the original protolanguage have developed along different paths to indicate such phenomena. Some language use different grammatical structures to express subtle differences which may even be hard to make in related languages spoken relatively nearby. The presentation will address possible differences of mindset among speakers of different languages, illustrating them using examples of different Germanic and Slavonic languages relating to time and space.