What is the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis?
[Previous] [Next] [Index] [–markrose] According to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, language determines the categories and much of the content of thought. “We dissect nature along lines laid down by our native languages… We cannot talk at all except by subscribing to the organization and classification of data which the [speech community] decrees,” said Whorf, in Language, Thought, and Reality (1956). “The fact of the matter is that the ‘real world’ is to a large extent unconsciously built up on the language habits of the group,” said Sapir. Both were students of Amerindian languages, and were drawn to this conclusion by analysis of the grammatical categories and semantic distinctions found in these languages, fascinatingly different from those found in European ones. (Neither linguist used the term ‘Sapir-Whorf hypothesis’, however; Whorf referred to the ‘linguistic relativity principle’. Moreover, the principle was almost entirely elaborated by Whorf alone.) The idea enjoyed a certain
