Although not really directly related to the topic of the class, there was a short discussion of the recent claims about Pirahã made by Dan Everett, and the response formulated by Andrew Nevins, David Pesetsky, and Cilene Rodrigues. The response was to Everett’s article in Current Anthropology, which can be found on Dan Everett’s web site. The response and was recently published in Language (it is a version the same paper that I was referring to as being on LingBuzz), and Everett has a response to the response in the same issue of Language. (The link directs you through the BU library proxy, so you should be able to see the article from a computer on campus or connected via VPN).

As for the discussion of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, the Wikipedia entry is probably as good a place as any to get an idea of what it’s about and the reactions to it.