An Exploration of Language Patterns as Indices of Cultural Perspective

FAIN: FT-10768-70

Elizabeth K. Reedy
Hope College (Holland, MI 49423-3663)

Fellow to study a non-Indo-European language (either Navaho or Hopi) to further her understanding of the ways in which other cultures perceive reality and of the basic ways in which the English language affects our thoughts and reflects our perceptions of reality. Major linguists have asserted the shaping influence of language on man's perceptions of reality, and have argued that only through the study of language radically different from one's own can one gain the perspective necessary to grasp the peculiar shaping forces within his own language. Fellow's previous work in Chaucer led her to an awareness of perceptions of reality different than those of modern western man and she hopes that study in a non-Indo-European language will give her added perspective on Middle English literature.