language
Gender vs. Language, Thought, and Reality (with a tip of the hat to Benjamin Whorf)
By Hall Harris - Posted on April 14th, 2009
Last week, thanks to my wife who frequently listens to NPR on the radio, I came across an amazing story which aired on Morning Edition on April 6, 2009. For years linguists have insisted -- following on the very good authority of Ferdinand de Saussure, considered to be the father of modern linguistics -- on the "arbitrariness of the sign," that is, that the series of letters that make up a word, and the word the letters make up, are arbitrary and by convention.
For thirty years W. Hall Harris III has taught on the faculty of Dallas Theological Seminary in the New Testament Studies Department. Since 1995 he has served as Project Director and Managing Editor for the NET Bible at bible.org passionately steering this revolutionary Bible from inception to global impact. Dr. Harris has traveled extensively in Western Europe, especially in Germany and Italy. And as an ordained minister he has served over the years as pastor of single adults, elder, and adult Sunday school teacher.
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