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Article: Win or lose, it's how you say the game.(OPINION)
- Article from:
- The Christian Science Monitor
- Article date:
- September 24, 2007
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 The Christian Science Publishing Society. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: David Keyes
La Jolla, Calif. -- Soccer, a game bound by a single set of 17 laws, looks very different in different countries. English soccer, for example, is to Argentinian soccer as country music is to rap. But such distinctions aren't merely a matter of style or tactics. Rather, they point to fundamental differences in how players and fans themselves perceive the game. An obscure theory about linguistics called the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis may help explain why. What does linguistics have to say about soccer? Quite a bit actually. In a nutshell, the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis states that language doesn't just describe reality - it shapes the way we perceive ...