ABSTRACT

If language were simply a nomenclature for a set of universal concepts, it would be easy to translate from one language to another. One would simply replace the French name for a concept with the English name. If language were like this the task of learning a new language would also be much easier than it is. But anyone who has attempted either of these tasks has acquired, alas, a vast amount of direct proof that languages are not nomenclatures, that the concepts . . . of one language may differ radically from those of another. . . . Each language articulates or organizes the world differently. Languages do not simply name existing categories, they articulate their own.