Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics.pdf

A-Z 1027SantaliMundaSapir-Whorf hypothesis (also linguisticdeterminism, linguistic relativity)Hypothesis developed by B.L.Whorf (1897–1941) and based on the linguistic approachof his teacher, E.Sapir (1884–1939), which, in its strongest form claims that a languagedetermines the thought and perception of its speakers. Whorf himself called this view the‘linguistic relativity principle.’ In other words, just as time, space, and mass (according toEinstein) can be defined only in terms of a system of relationships, human knowledgesimilarly arises only in relation to the semantic and structural possibilities of naturallanguages. Through his work with Native American languages, whose vocabularies andgrammatical structures deviate considerably from the regularities of Indo-Europeanlanguages, Whorf came to the conclusion that ‘people who use languages with verydifferent grammars are led by these grammars to typically different observations anddifferent values for outwardly similar observations’ (Whorf 1956:20). Whorf s maininterest at the time was the Hopi language and culture. He worked especially with thelinguistic channels for space-time conceptualization in Hopi, with plural formation andpeculiarities of counting, and from these observations derived the hypothesis that Hopihas no physical concept of time. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis stands in accord with vonHumboldt’s theory of a ‘world view’ of languages, as is clearly seen in the title of hiswork on the Kawi languages of Java: On language: the diversity of human languagestructureand its influence on the mental development of mankind. However, Sapir andWhorf make no explicit reference either to von Humboldt or to contemporary parallelviews. The continuing discussion of the function of language in cognitive processes tendsincreasingly towards assuming a reciprocal relationship between language and thought.For refutation of the strong form of this hypothesis, see Berlin, Berlin and Kay (1969).ReferencesBerlin, B., E.A.Berlin, and P.Kay. 1969. Basic color terms: their universality and evolution .Berkeley, CA.Gipper, H. 1972. Gibt es ein sprachliches Relativitätsprinzip? Untersuchungen zur Sapir-WhorfHypothese. Frankfurt.Grace, G.W. 1987. The linguistic construction of reality. London.Humboldt, W.von. 1836–9. Über die Kawi-Sprache auf der Insel Java, nebst einer Einleitung überdie Verschiedenheit des menschlichen Sprachbaues und ihren auf die geistigeEntwicklung des Menschengeschlechts, 3 vols. Berlin. (On language: the diversity of humanlanguage structure and its influen ce on e mental th development of mankind, trans. P.Heath.New York, 1988.)