The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
It is a controversial theory developed by linguist Edward Sapir and his student Benjamin Whorf. The hypothesis states that the way people think is strongly affected by their native languages. I mean the language we use determines how we experience the world and how we express that experience. So, this view can also be called as linguistic determinism.
This view can be easily refuted because human brain can produce so many complicated ideas which cannot be expressed by language.The best known example used for explaining this view is Eskimoans. They have so many words for verbalizing "snow" but they have not any word for "camel". According to Saphir and Whorf, this is because of linguistic determinisim. On the contrary to this view, if we show Eskimoan people a camel, they can easily distinguish this animal. So accuracy of this theory is not certain.
This view can be easily refuted because human brain can produce so many complicated ideas which cannot be expressed by language.The best known example used for explaining this view is Eskimoans. They have so many words for verbalizing "snow" but they have not any word for "camel". According to Saphir and Whorf, this is because of linguistic determinisim. On the contrary to this view, if we show Eskimoan people a camel, they can easily distinguish this animal. So accuracy of this theory is not certain.
No comments:
Post a Comment