Dr Laura Bailey, Lecturer in the Department of English & Linguistics, has contributed an article to The Conversation entitled ‘Language: “Untranslatable” Words Tell Us More about English Speakers than Other Cultures’.
The Conversation is an independent website consisting of news and views sourced from the academic and research community, and delivered direct to the public.
The article, published on 9 August 2018, explores non-English words that lack a single word English equivalent, such as the Danish word ‘hygge’ [the feeling of cosiness and contentment] or Swedish word ‘fika’ [a morning coffee with conversation].
‘While careful experimentation has shown that having words for concepts makes them easier or faster to name, it is not true that lacking a concept means you cannot conceive of it, and vice versa,’ explains Laura in the article, who discusses how words carry historical and cultural connotations.
To read the full article, please see the page here:
https://theconversation.com/language-untranslatable-words-tell-us-more-about-english-speakers-than-other-cultures-100841