Whorf believed that the reverse is also true, that a language affects culture as well, by actually influencing how its speakers think. Anthropologists need to learn the language of the culture they are studying in order to understand the world view of its speakers. Sapir and his predecessors were well aware of the close relationship between culture and language because each culture is reflected in and influences its language. This was due primarily to the deliberate efforts of the United States government to force Native Americans to assimilate into the Euro-American culture. Sapir, considered the father of American linguistic anthropology, was responsible for documenting and recording the languages and cultures of many Native American tribes, which were disappearing at an alarming rate. In the 1920s, Benjamin Whorf was a graduate student studying with linguist Edward Sapir at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.
(Can we analyze memes through an ethnolinguistic, relativist lens? We will try!)ģ.1 Linguistic Relativity: The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis We will talk about the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis look at examples that support the notion of linguistic relativity (pronouns, kinship terms, grammatical tenses, and what they tell us about culture and worldview) and then we will more specifically look into how metaphors are a structural component of worldview, if not cognition itself and we will wrap up with memes. Our main question, which we will not entirely answer but which we will examine in depth, is a chicken and egg one: does thought determine language, or does language inform thought? In this part, we will look at language(s) and worldviews at the intersection of language & thoughts and language & cognition (i.e., the mental system with which we process the world around us, and with which we learn to function and make sense of it).
Provide examples of linguistic relativity through examples related to time, space, metaphors, etc. Define the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis (against more pop-culture takes on it) and situate it in a broader theoretical context/historyĤ. Differentiate linguistic relativity and linguistic determinismģ. Define the concept of linguistic relativityĢ.
\)Īfter completing this module, students will be able to:ġ.
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