X-Nico

5 unusual facts about John McWhorter


Acting white

Political observer John McWhorter has commented, "teenagers have a variety of identities open to them for trying on anti-Establishment postures. White kids can be stoners or goths. Black kids can be 'nonwhite'."

Berik language

US linguist John McWhorter cited Berik as an example of a language which puts concepts "together in ways more fascinatingly different from English than most of us are aware".

Hopi time controversy

Linguists and psychologists who work in the universalist tradition such as Steven Pinker and John McWhorter, have seen Malotki's study as being the final proof that Whorf was an inept linguist and had no significant knowledge or understanding of the Hopi language.

Language bioprogram theory

McWhorter contributed to the LBH with his Creole Prototype Theory, which argues that creoles exhibit some features that may be used to distinguish them from other languages without referring to the socio-historical dimension.

Ngadha language

This "strangely streamlined language" is thought by linguist John McWhorter to have originated when "little people" were "subjugated" into Indonesian society in the past.



see also