Small note but I would think Germans engage in less schadenfreude than other cultures.
For a long time my favourite word used to be ‘cruelty’ specifically for its effectiveness in combating some forms of its referent.
Well by that logic Germans may experience more shadenfreude, which would presumably mean there is more shadenfreude going on in Germany than elsewhere, so I don’t think your point makes sense. You only need a word for something if it exists, especially if it’s something you encounter a lot.
It may also be possible that we use facsimiles for words by explaining their meaning with whole sentences, and only occasionally stumble upon a word that catches on and that elegantly encapsulates the concept we want to convey (like “gaslighting”). It may be a matter of probability, and it may not matter much that our language is not as efficient as it could be.
It could also be that most languages can convey 99% of the things our modern world needs it to convey, and that we are simply hung up on the rare exceptions (like shadenfreude or je ne sais quoi). If that hypothesis is true, then language does not carry much information about cultural values.
Small note but I would think Germans engage in less schadenfreude than other cultures. For a long time my favourite word used to be ‘cruelty’ specifically for its effectiveness in combating some forms of its referent.
Well by that logic Germans may experience more shadenfreude, which would presumably mean there is more shadenfreude going on in Germany than elsewhere, so I don’t think your point makes sense. You only need a word for something if it exists, especially if it’s something you encounter a lot.
It may also be possible that we use facsimiles for words by explaining their meaning with whole sentences, and only occasionally stumble upon a word that catches on and that elegantly encapsulates the concept we want to convey (like “gaslighting”). It may be a matter of probability, and it may not matter much that our language is not as efficient as it could be.
It could also be that most languages can convey 99% of the things our modern world needs it to convey, and that we are simply hung up on the rare exceptions (like shadenfreude or je ne sais quoi). If that hypothesis is true, then language does not carry much information about cultural values.