Academic literature on the topic 'Sapir-Whorf hypothesis'

Linguistic relativism originally comes from anthropology and linguistics. However, most of the interpretations of linguistic relativism have come a long way considering the beginning of the 20th century – when it was established. One of the reasons for that lies in its interdisciplinary potential. In various arts, we find many applications of the philosophy of linguistic relativism. In this paper, we write about the application of the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis in the American movie Arrival (2016) and the novel from Bosnian writer EnesKarić named Boje višnje (2016).

The present article explores the interrelationships between language and thought in the literature of the Vedic Canon. Whether language shapes thoughts or vice versa has remained a topic pregnant with perpetual discussions, interpretations, and explanations since the beginning of human civilization. Throughout the multiple crossroads of the development in the intellectual tradition, the dimensions of language and thought attracted many scholars and linguists. However, linguists like Edward Sapir and Benjamin L. Whorf in the twentieth century have systematically interpreted and analyzed the language-thought dimensions. Whorf postulated that language shapes thoughts while Sapir projected that language is in the grip of thought. The literature of the Vedic Canon has also logically and systematically projected the multiple dimensional, but agglutinative relationships between language and thought. The hymns of the Rig Veda, myths from Brahmanas, and the lore from Upanishads unravel, interpret, and enrich the language-thought interconnection in such a way that the Vedic literature remains as the classical version of Sapir-Whorf hypothesis written in Sanskrit. In this regard, the Vedic literature and Sapir-Whorf hypothesis play the same tune of music in different lyres. The present paper attempts to reveal this point of unity in diversity between the two seemingly diverse schools of thoughts—classical Vedic literature and modern linguistic theory of Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. Being the qualitative research, this paper explores, interprets, and correlates the theoretical concepts, ideas, and phenomena from the Vedic literature and Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.

Summary A scholarly consensus traces the roots of the ‘Sapir-Whorf hypothesis’ to German language theory of the late 18th to early 19th century, which connects the ‘inner form’ of a language with the potential for cultural achievement of the nation that speaks it. This paper attempts to complexify that genealogy by exploring more immediate sources of the idea that one’s native language determines individual and cultural patterns of thought. In the version of this idea held by Herder and Humboldt, called here the ‘magic key’ view, language is seen as embodying the national mind and unfolding in line with the Romantic (Hegelian) theory of history. But there is another version, here dubbed ‘metaphysical garbage’, which envisions language developing within an evolutionary view of history and introducing obstacles to logical thought. This view was a commonplace of Cambridge analytical philosophy (Whitehead & Russell) and Viennese logical positivism (Carnap). A key Cambridge-Vienna link was C. K. Ogden, whose series included books by the leaders of both groups, and whose own book The Meaning of Meaning (with I. A. Richards, 1923) – the subtitle of which begins The influence of language on thought – synthesizes many of their positions. Sapir’s positive review of this book marks a turning point from his view of language as a cultural product (as in Language, 1921) to a sort of template around which the rest of culture is structured, as in his “The Status of Linguistics as a Science” (1929). This paper, like others of Sapir’s writings from 1923 on, takes up the rhetoric of metaphysical garbage almost exclusively. Whorf, drawn by Sapir to structuralism from originally mystical interests in language, likewise takes up the ‘garbage’ line, interweaving it with ‘magic key’ only in the two years between Sapir’s death and his own. Other influences on Whorf s views are examined, including Korzybski’s General Semantics, to which he has intriguing connections.

The relationship between language and thought has long been a topic of great interest in the field of linguistics, especially in psycholinguistics. Herder, Humboldt, Trendelenbury, Sapir, Whorf, Gui Shichun, Lian Shuneng, and Bao Huinan are some of the well-known scholars who have conducted research on the relationship between language and thought. With regard to the relationship between language and thought, there are three main viewpoints. The first group of scholars, represented by Sapir and Whorf, supports linguistic determinism. Some scholars believe that language and thought are mutually independent. However, others believe that language and thought are inseparable. Beginning from Sapir-Whorf hypothesis and their theory of linguistic determinism and linguistic relativity, this article agrees with the influence of language over thought but refutes the extreme viewpoint of linguistic determinism from several points, proving the independence and mutual influence of language and thought. This article finally concludes that the preferred relationship between language and thought should be that they are independent but interactive.

The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which was first proposed by linguists Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf in the early 20th century, is currently the most widely accepted theory of neurolinguistics. It makes the argument that language influences cognition and perception, i.e., that people's basic worldviews vary depending on the language they use. Their hypothesis, sometimes referred to as "linguistic relativity," contends that a language's lexicon and structure affect perception. This claim has been disputed on a number of different grounds.Specifically, the hypothesis is composed of two different parts called Linguistic Diversity and Linguistic Influence on Thought, which argue that languages have fundamental differences from each other and that the differences between individual languages create cognitive differences within people. With regards to the latter cognitive section of the theory, there are two key tiers that it is divided into. The first tier proposes a universal "rock bottom" of human consciousness, where everyone must share a basic level of perception. The second tier delves into the semantic details of various languages, asserting that these linguistic nuances contribute to different interpretations layered atop the universal foundation. Moreover, the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis has been even further bisected into two distinct versions depending on how strongly they convey the idea of linguistic relativity, with a strong version arguing that native language completely alters our perspective and a weak version that only suggests a weak connection between the two.