CHAPTER OBJECTIVES

This chapter will enable you to:

LINGUISTIC RELATIVITY

For years, I have started my classes on language and culture with two questions. First, I ask those in the audience who are afraid of spiders or who know someone who is afraid of spiders to raise their hands. Usually, more than half of the people in the audience raise their hands. Second, I ask those in the audience who are afraid that somewhere, somehow a duck is watching them or who know someone who is afraid that somewhere, somehow a duck is watching them to raise their hands. No one ever raises their hand and responses range from bewildered looks to giggles about the absurdity of the question – all followed by outright laughter once I show a Far Side cartoon1 depicting a man sitting at his desk in front of a large window. The window is overlooked by high-rises with many windows, and in one of those windows there is a duck. The caption reads: ‘Anatidaephobia: The fear that somewhere, somehow, a duck is watching you.’

Fear of spiders, or arachnophobia, is a concept that is readily available in many of the world's languages, grounded as it is in the actual fact that some spiders can be dangerous to humans. By contrast, fear of being watched by a duck, or anatidaephobia, is a word made up for a concept made up by a cartoonist and is known to only a very few people who are familiar with that particular cartoon. The observation that I would like my students to reflect on with this example is that a well-known concept is tied to actual experience: many people are afraid of spiders or know someone who is afraid of spiders. An obscure concept is not related to experience in the same way: no one I have ever met is afraid of being watched by a duck or knows someone who is.