Wt is whorfian hypothesis? And wt evidence supports this theory?

Question

I know that this hypothesis suggests that language is a shaping force, can anyone further explains it and provides some evidence that supports this theory? thanks

Answer 1

Well, it's been discredited -- it was a sort of fad in philosophical circles for a while.

Taking the other person's snow example, it says that the differences in language have a role in actually shaping our experience of, say, snow.

Eskimos experience all of these snows differently than the rest of us, because they have all of these specific concepts for it.

It assumes that language controls what we think.

If you search for Steven Pinker you might hit some of his very readable debunking of this idea.

Back in my day it was called Whorf-Sapire hypothesis.

Answer 2

The Whorfian hypothesis, more formally called the "linguistic relativity hypothesis" is the notion that differences among languages cause differences in the thoughts of speakers.  Whorf said that, for instance, Eskimos have many different words for "snow," whereas in English, there is only one word.  Eskimos have words for falling snow, snow on the ground, snow packed hard like ice, slushy snow etc.  

One of the issues people have with this hypothesis is that we have other words in English that describe those types of snow: snowfall, slush, sleet, flurry, etc.  On the other hand, they have found other language differences amongst peoples that supports his hypothesis.  You might say the Whorfian hypothesis is a slippery slope.  :)

Answer 3

You're right about the definition. Other research evidence comes from asking people to determine what color something is. In the Western system, we have our 7 colors and it's at the "edges"--yellow/green or blue/purple where people take the longest to respond. In an African group, where the visible spectrum is divided into four groups, the hesitations in their responses come at the edges of those groups, not where our edges lie.