ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book attempts to show that the mapping view in the long run conceals more than it reveals about the nature of language and the role of language and language differences in a wide range of human affairs. The chapter explores the differences between the mapping and the reality-construction views of language are fundamental ones with far-reaching implications. The principal differences between the mapping and reality-construction views of language all seem to be traceable to different conceptions of the way in which languages represent reality different conceptions of the relation between a language and external reality. Thus, it may be said that the basic differences between the two views are attributable to the different epistemological assumptions underlying them. The intertranslatability postulate has important implications for the nature of language and of individual languages.
