Re: off topic: Gramm[a!]r Question

[David Auerbach auerbach@xxxxxxxx]

On May 24, 2005, at 4:10 PM, Harry Binswanger wrote:

> That I agree with--it ain't arbitrary, although there are options. And
> I endorse your disagreement with "poor Whorf." BTW, did you know that
> the old canard about the Eskimos having 5 different words for "snow"
> turns out to be an urban legend?
Oh sure. It is particularly funny since even the most authoritative
references to the "snow" words vary enormous with respect to how many:
some say 5, some say 17, some say 8.
  I'm not sure how much we actually disagree about the other stuff
(or how you and Chomsky disagree); I would start by distinguishing the
genesis of the innate structure (something about which we now know
approximately nothing other than evolutionary just-so stories) from
what the structure actually is (about which we have discovered quite a
bit).


               Regards,
               David

David Auerbach
Department of Philosophy & Religion
Box 8103
Raleigh, NC 27695-8103

visit: http://www.slowfoodusa.org