LANGUAGE, CULTURE AND THOUGHT

Definitions:
1. Language is a set of rules by which humans can create and understand novel
sentences.
(Chomsky)
2. Language is a set of shared symbols or signs that a cooperative groups of people
has agreed to use to create meaning.

LANGUAGE
1. Language is a system of symbols with standard meaning
2. Mean of communication
3. We interpret & organize the reality
4. We categorizes the world
5. We transmit our culture
6. We establish and maintain the relationship
CULTURE
Definition:
1. Culture is defined as "socially acquired knowledge: i.e. as the knowledge that
someone has by virtue of his being a member of a particular society (cf. Hudson, 1980:
74)
2.Two points must be made about the use of the word "Knowledge"
► First
1. Covers both practical and propositional knowledge: both knowing how to do
something and knowing that something is or is not so.
► Second
1. As for propositional knowledge is concerned, it is fact that something is held to be
true that counts, not its actual truth or falsity.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

1. Different language speakers not only speak differently, they think differently.
2. Whorf "we cut nature up, organize it into concepts and describe significances as we
do, largely because we are party to an agreement which holds in the pattern of our
language"
3. The structure of a language determines the way in which speakers of that language
view the world.
THE SAPIR-WHORF HYPOTHESIS
Whorf 1930s
two basic principles
1. Linguistic Determinism
2. Linguistic Relativity
1. a. Strong version: structure of a language determines the way in which speakers of
that language view the world
b. Weaker version: not determine the world- view but is still extremely influential in
predisposing speakers of a language toward adopting a particular world-view
2. Linguistic Relativity: Different languages represent different ways of thinking about
the world around us.

THE SAPIR-WHORF HYPOTHESIS

Sapir and Whorf
1. Sapir (1884-1939) American anthropologist, a leader in American structural
linguistics, Author of language and An introduction to the study of speech.
2. Born in Lauenberg, Germany.
3. Pupil of Franz Boas
4. Teacher of Benjamin Whorf

THE SAPIR-WHORF HYPOTHESIS

Sapir (1929)
1. 'Human beings do not live in the society alone. Language of the society predispose
certain choices of interpretation about how we view the world'.
Whorf (1930s)
2. 'We dissect nature along lines laid down by our native languages .We categorize
objects in the scheme laid by the language and if we do not subscribe to these
classification we cannot talk or communicate'.

THE SAPIR-WHORF HYPOTHESIS

The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis consist of two associated principle:
1. Linguistic Determinism
2. Linguistic Relativity
THE SAPIR-WHORF HYPOTHESIS
1. Linguistic Determinism
a. Language may determine our thinking patterns, the way we view and think about the
word.
b. Linguistic determinism also called "strong determinism"

THE SAPIR-WHORF HYPOTHESIS

1. Linguistic Determinism (cont....)
a. Linguistic determinism holds that differences in language cause differences in
thoughts.
b. Relations expected because thought is held to be determined by language not the
world.

THE SAPIR-WHORF HYPOTHESIS

Linguistic Determinism (cont....)
Example 1:
1. In Eskimo language there are number of words involving snow. For example wet
snow, powdery snow, spring snow, etc. But in English we only have word 'snow' to refer
to different kinds of snow.

THE SAPIR-WHORF HYPOTHESIS

Linguistic Determinism (cont....)
Example 2:
a. In the grammar of Hopi Indians of Arizona there is a distinction between 'animate'
and 'inanimate. Hopi Indians believe stones and clouds are animate.

THE SAPIR-WHORF HYPOTHESIS

Linguistic Determinism (cont....)
Example 3:
1. A French tribe has a language in which 'female markings' are used with stone and
door. They use the term la femme (woman), la pierre (stone) and la porte (door).

THE SAPIR-WHORF HYPOTHESIS

2. Linguistic Relativity
a. The les similar the languages more diverse their conceptualization of the world
b. Different languages view the world differently.

THE SAPIR-WHORF HYPOTHESIS

2. Linguistic Relativity
a. Language influences thinking
b. Linguistic differences between cultures are associated with cultural difference in
thinking
c. View points vary from language to language
d. Humans are at the mercy of the particular language the speak

THE SAPIR-WHORF HYPOTHESIS

Linguistic Relativity Vs Linguistic Determinism
1. Linguistic relativity is the idea that the language a person speaks shapes and
influences the way he thinks.
2. No two languages are ever sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the
same social reality
3. Linguistic determinism is the idea that the things a person thinks are fully determined
by the language that they speak.

THE SAPIR-WHORF HYPOTHESIS

Two versions of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis:
1. Strong version
2. Weak version

THE SAPIR-WHORF HYPOTHESIS

1. Strong version: Language determines thought, We are prisoners of language.
2. Weak Version: Language influences but does not determine thought.

THE SAPIR-WHORF HYPOTHESIS

Criticism:
1. Number of arguments have been presented against this view. Here is one from
Sampson: A French tribe has a language in which 'female markings' are used with
stone and door. They use the term a femme (woman), la pierre (stone) and la porte
(door).
2. Do all the French believe that stones and doors are female?
THE SAPIR-WHORF HYPOTHESIS
Criticism:
1. Users of language do not inherit a fixed set of patterns to use.
2. Users inherit the ability to manipulate and create with a language.
3. If thinking and perception were totally determined by language, then the concept of
language change would be impossible.

THE SAPIR-WHORF HYPOTHESIS

Criticism:
Example 1:
1. If a young Hopi boy had no word in his language for the object known to us as a
computer, would he fail to perceive the object?

THE SAPIR-WHORF HYPOTHESIS

Criticism:
Example 2:
1. Returning to Eskimos and 'snow' we realize that English does not have a large
number of Angle terms for different kinds of snow. However, English speakers can
create expressions, by manipulating their language, to refer to wet snow, powdery
snow, spring snow, etc.