Was There Ever a Radical Mistranslation?

Analysis 41 (4):171 - 175 (1981)
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Abstract

On their voyage of discovery to Australia a group of Captain Cook's sailors captured a young kangaroo and brought the strange creature back on board their ship. No one knew what it was, so some men were sent ashore to ask the natives. When the sailors returned they told their mates, ‘It's a kangaroo.’ Many years later it was discovered that when the aborigines said ‘kangaroo’ they were not in fact naming the animal, but replying to their questioners, ‘What did you say?’1

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Ian Hacking
University of Toronto, St. George Campus

Citations of this work

Taking a Look at History.Vasso Kindi - 2014 - Journal of the Philosophy of History 8 (1):96-117.
Language as a Specimen.Floris Solleveld - 2023 - Berichte Zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte 46 (1):92-113.

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