Full Idea
Hopi, with its preference for verbs, as contrasted to our own liking for nouns, perpetually turns our propositions about things into propositions about events.
Clarification
The Hopi are a tribe of native Americans
Gist of Idea
Hopi consistently prefers verbs and events to nouns and things
Source
Benjamin Lee Whorf (An American Indian model of the Universe [1936], p.63)
Book Reference
'A Companion to Epistemology', ed/tr. Dancy,J. /Sosa,E. [Blackwell 1993], p.63
A Reaction
This should provoke careful thought about ontology - without concluding that it is entirely relative to language.
Related Ideas
Idea 8348 If we don't assume that events exist, we cannot make sense of our common talk [Davidson]
Idea 9843 You can't identify events by causes and effects, as the event needs to be known first [Dummett on Davidson]