As we saw here at Brandi Edwards blog, it was difficult enough to investigate experimentally the validity of the linguistic relativity hypothesis in the matter of sex codifiability. When it comes to the conceptually more abstract notions expressed by grammatical categories, it is even more difficult. But we can note one interesting fact. If, indeed, we are imprisoned within the conceptual system imposed on us by our language, how does it come about that Whorf himself was able to express in English notions which he implied were untranslatable? The probability is that, as in the case of lexical encoding, it is a question of relative ease or brandiedwards difficulty of encoding certain more abstract concepts in one or another language, rather than the flat impossibility of doing so, and certain languages make it easier or more difficult to discriminate within these fields of experience. If languages reflected differences in kind between cultures, that is, encoded radically different ways of seeing the world, then translation between languages would be impossible.
