By Daniel Akst
A recent posting in this space reported on the work of Yale economist Keith Chen,who presented evidence in a TED talk that people who speak languages without strictly distinct future or past tenses are a lot more likely to save money. It’s an interesting and important topic, so it’s noteworthy that some linguists have weighed in with criticisms.
There’s a thoughtful blog posting by Sean Roberts, for instance, that raises several issues and links to other critics as well as to a response from Chen (whose response to Roberts can be found in the comments). Is Chen onto something? Or has he just found some spurious correlations? You be the judge.
(If you’d rather dig into an academic paper than watch a Ted talk, just follow this link.)
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My sister Janet who taught at Rochester New York's poorest elementary school for 33 years says that "Violence is a language problem. If you can't navigate conflict with language, what options are open once you've yelled "Fuck your momma!" except picking up a knife or gun?"