Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

Edward Sapir (1884–1939) and Benjamin Lee Whorf (1897–1941)developed the idea known as the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. Sapir and Whorf posited that the particular language we speak influences the way we see reality because categories and distinctions encoded in one language are not always available in another language (linguistic relativity). Scholars also interpret the hypothesis as standing for the proposition that differences in the structure of languages produce differences in how people think (linguistic determinism). However, neither theorist specified exactly the relationship between language and thought; that is, whether he believed that language determines thinking or just influences it. Consequently, because of its lack of specificity, the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis has been a controversial idea since its inception in the 1920s and 1930s. Scholars in a variety of disciplines, including anthropology, education, linguistics, philosophy, and psychology, have disagreed about the role of language in thinking and how Sapir and Whorf intended to conceptualize that relationship. They have conducted research based on their conceptualization of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis in the hopes of finding empirical evidence to support it. However, research findings remain inconclusive, and the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis is a subject that scholars continue to investigate.

From his studies of the research of Wilhelm von Humboldt and his own research on languages, Sapir concluded that there is clearly a connection between language and thought; however, he did not clearly state whether he believed that language determined thought. Rather, he argued that no two languages are ever sufficiently similar such that they could represent the same reality. Instead, he posited that the worlds in which different societies live are distinct worlds, not merely the same world with different labels attached to them. Furthermore,Sapir believed that we see and hear and otherwise experience the world very largely as we do because the language habits of our community predispose certain choices of interpretation.

One of Sapir's students, Benjamin Lee Whorf, further developed the proposition that there is a systematic relationship between categories of language and thinking. Many scholars attribute the development of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis to Benjamin Lee Whorf. Whorf was not an academic linguist but a fire insurance inspector; the study of linguistics was his avocation. Whorf studied the Hopi language under the supervision of Sapir. He developed a theory in collaboration with Sapir that many scholars identify as extreme Whorfianism. Extreme Whorfianism states that the structure of a human being's language determines the manner in which a person understands reality and behaves with respect to it. Whorf argued that we categorize nature along lines laid down by our native languages. Thus, for example, Whorf believed that speakers of Chinese dissect nature and the universe differently from Western speakers. In sum, Whorf believed that the culture of a people determines their language and their language determines the way that they categorize their thoughts and their experiences in the world.

Although Sapir and Whorf described a relationship between language and thought and culture, neither of them formally wrote a hypothesis that specified a relationship that scholars could subject to rigorous empirical testing. Instead, they proposed broad definitions and gave examples from their research to illustrate their arguments. Indeed, scholars formally named the ideas the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis [Page 2052]only after the deaths of Sapir and Whorf. Yet the hypothesis remains an authoritative but controversial statement primarily because of its two central principles: linguistic relativity and linguistic determinism.

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