The Sapir-Whorf
hypothesis
Sampson (1980)
Elena Galkina
Idea
• Man’s language molds his perception of reality
• The world a man inhabits is a linguistic construct
Sapir
• Sapir studied languages of the Pacific coast of
North America; his work was comparable to
Descriptivism but differed from Behaviorism; patterns
revealed by linguistic analysis were patterns in
speakers’ minds.
• Linguistic ‘drift’ – a long-term tendency for a
language to modify itself in some particular
direction, as the coming and going of waves on a
beach masks a steady long-term tidal movement.
Whorf
• Whorf - detailed analysis of certain American
Indian languages
• The worldview is molded by language
• Analysis of reports of how fires had started –
not only physical factors are relevant but also
language
• Main focus on Hopi, a language of Arizona
Conclusions based on
Hopi analysis
• Only certain grammatical categories marked overtly in
languages (ex., tense in finite English verbs)
• Covert categories/cryptotypes (ex., the names of
countries and towns)
• Covert categories are more representative of the worldview of its speakers
• Animate/inanimate in Hopi (clouds)
• Sex category
• ‘Standard Average European’
• “Time, velocity and matter are not essential to the
construction of a consistent picture of the universe”
• ‘He runs fast’/ ‘He very runs’
• Max Black’s objection to Hopi’s time concept
• Ludwig Wittgenstein – a view similar to Whorf but
w/out his knowledge of exotic languages
• Interdependence of world-view and language
• Ask the speakers to see if this is correct!
• While Black attacks Whorf’s ‘hypothesis’ for
untestability he strongly supports Wittgenstein’s
untestable philosophy
• More critisism:
• Whorf’s inability to allow for the radical changes of
world-view within a given linguistic community.
• The history of science has been a history of
repeated radical changes of world-view, almost all
of which occurred within the Standard Average
European linguistic framework.
• Language of a community ↔ thought of individual
members
• How individual influences language?
• Sapir – individuals being ‘at the mercy of’ their
language; ‘tyrannical hold’ over their mind
• Whorf – speakers are parties to an ‘absolutely
obligatory’ agreement to conceptualize the world
in a certain way
von den Steinen and LévyBruhl
• Translating Bororó
• thought-patterns of all primitive people are similar to
thought-patterns of civilized men; ‘pre-logical’
• The distinction between Bororó and English is not a
matter of logic but of beliefs about abstract matters of
fact – each community holds certain sophisticated
theories which are only very indirectly connected with
observable reality, and these theories cannot be merely
translated but must be taught to members of other
communities.
• The deeper and more abstract are the aspects of a
‘world-view’ the more compelling the argument that
differences in world-view result form misinterpretation of
language.
Any support?
• ‘Trivial’ hypothesis
• Plausible in its triviality – differences in the categorization
in various languages are based on concrete, observable
phenomena; the concepts are familiar to many people
• Colors – Berlin & Kay (1969) “ Basic Color Terms” – all
human languages have common pattern which is
determined by psychological structuring innate in
humans
• Agreement – there is a relationship between the nature
of language and various languages speakers’ worldview BUT language structures and their world-views are
diverse
• ‘Universal’ colors categorization is based on similar
patterns across languages – unreliable data from 78
languages, examined only 20
Conclusion
• We categorize based on our language
• We allow our language to preempt the decisions
we make
• We are not “helpless prisoners” of our language