Laicité: Lexical Gaps and Why they Matter

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the English language has 171,476 words in current use, and 47,156 obsolete words. Additionally, there are 9,500 derivative words that are listed as sub-entries. And yet, somehow, we're still missing some. 

For example, we have no word for the circular mark a water glass leaves on a table (cualcino in Italian), a person who asks a lot of questions (pochemuchka in Russian), or the feeling of being in forest alone (waldeinsamkeit in German). Most notably, there's no you plural or formal in English, which causes a bit of confusion for those who learn it as a second language. And what is the word for not having a word for something? A lexical gap.

You can check out Hank Green's rad video on them here: 

So, lexical gaps are pretty much everywhere, and the really interesting thing about them is that you can really see what a culture values. Take Green's example for a non-virgin; in our western culture, virginity is so important that if you aren't a virgin, there literally isn't a word for you. Crazy, right? 

It gets a bit more complicated when we decide to look at the effects of language on our comprehension of the world around us. Essentially, when we don't have a word for something, our brain quite literally cannot comprehend the subject. This has been proved over and over again (if you want to know the science behind it, you can check out this NPR RadioLab podcast), but it's most notably demonstrated in ancient Greek literature. 

For example, let's analyze Homer's The Odyssey. If you count the number of times each color is mentioned, black totals to 170, white to 100, red to 13, yellow and green are both under 10. But blue? Not once. Homer would even refer to traditionally blue things by using other descriptors-- the sea is not "blue," but "wine dark." This is because the Greek language had no word for blue, and so the Greeks didn't see it; their brains didn't comprehend it. This is the problem with lexical gaps. 

The problem with untranslatable things isn't that you can't translate it perfectly, but that the other person will never have perfect comprehension. If you don't have a word for something, you can't understand it. So how do you explain a concept when there are no words for it? How can you translate an cultural mentality? 

Such was my case in EMC class (Enseignement Moral et Civique) a few weeks ago when we began discussing laicité. This is essentially the concept of separation between church and state, but a bit more extreme than what we have in our own country. France values this enough to have invented a word for it, unlike America. Yes, separation between church and state exists in our country, but you could hardly call our state "laic." We have "in God we trust" on our money, our president is sworn into office with his hand on a bible, our pledge of allegiance says "one nation, under God," and prayer even exists in some schools. None of these would ever happen in France. 

However, we also have some privileges because of our non-existent laicité. Americans have the right to express their religion whenever or wherever we'd like. In France, you can't wear the veil, a star of David, or a cross in a public space. This is where we begin to see the lexical gap-- I see this as a privilege, because I was raised in America. "Thank God we have freedom of expression!" Americans cry, while my French peers are thinking the exact opposite. And honestly, I can't really understand why they would want to live that way. I can't comprehend something I don't even have a word for. 

I think what this really boils down to is each nation's idea of liberty. In France, they view liberty as equality; how can you be free in a classroom if you are not all equal? How can a girl wear a veil and still be equal to her peers? And yet, in America, we see liberty as the ability to make our own choices, including at school. Isn't there value in the diversity of a group of students, and so shouldn't we celebrate that diversity? Shouldn't we try to understand and accept each religion as it is? 

That's the really incredible thing about lexical gaps. Language is a window with which we can view another culture and what it values. Laicité doesn't exist in my language. Laicité doesn't exist in my culture. Laicité doesn't exist in me.