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Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

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Language: Linguistics · Semiotics · Speech

In linguistics, the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis (SWH) (also known as the "linguistic relativity hypothesis") postulates a systematic relationship between the grammatical categories of the language a person speaks and how that person both understands the world and behaves in it. Although known as the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis, it was an underlying axiom of linguist and anthropologist Edward Sapir and his colleague and student Benjamin Whorf.



The position that language anchors thought may be traced to Wilhelm von Humboldt's essay Über das vergleichende Sprachstudium ("On the comparative study of languages") published in 1836.[1]



Franz Boas

The origin of the SWH as a more rigorous examination of this familiar cultural perception may be traced to the work of Franz Boas, who is often credited as the founder of anthropology in the United States. Boas was educated in Germany in the late 19th Century at a time when scientists such as Ernst Mach and Ludwig Boltzmann were attempting to understand the physiology of sensation.

One marked philosophical current then apparent was a revival of interest in the work of Immanuel Kant. Kant opined that knowledge is the result of concrete cognitive work on the part of an individual person—reality ("sensuous intuition") is inherently in flux, and understanding results when someone takes that intuition and interprets it via their "categories of the understanding." Different individuals may thus perceive the same noumenal reality as phenomenal instances of their different, individual concepts.

In the United States, Boas encountered Native American languages from many different linguistic families, all of which were quite different from the standard Semitic and Indo-European languages then studied by most European scholars. Boas realized how greatly ways of life and grammatical categories may vary from locality to locality. As a result he came to hold that the culture and lifeways of a people are reflected in their language.

Edward Sapir

Sapir was one of Boas's star students. He furthered Boas's argument by noting that languages are systematic, formally complete systems. Thus, it is not this nor that particular word that expresses a particular mode of thought and behavior, but the coherent and systematic nature of language interacting at a wider level with thought and behavior. Whilst his views changed through time, towards the end of his life Sapir held that language does not merely mirror culture and habitual action, but that language and thought are in a relationship of mutual influence, verging upon determinism.

Benjamin Whorf

Whorf refined this idea and engendered precision by examining the particular grammatical mechanisms by which language influences thought. He framed his discursive thrust thus:


Despite criticism of his hypothesis as monocausal and deterministic, Whorf sought to insist that thought and action were linguistically and socially mediated, and not monolithically determined. In doing so he opposed what he called a "natural logic" position which held, according to him, that "talking, or the use of language, is supposed only to 'express' what is essentially already formulated nonlinguistically".[4] On this account, he argued, "thought does not depend on grammar but on laws of logic or reason which are supposed to be the same for all observers of the universe".[5]


Influence and reactions


Linguistic theories of the 1960s—such as those proposed by Noam Chomsky—focused on the innateness and universality of language. As a result Whorf's work fell out of favor. An example of a recent Chomskian approach to this issue is Steven Pinker's book The Language Instinct. Pinker argues from a contravening school of thought that holds that some sort of universal grammar underlies all language. The most extreme proponents of this theory, such as Pinker, argue that thought is independent of language, and that language is itself meaningless in any fundamental way to human thought, and that human beings do not even think in what is called "natural" language, which is to say in any of the languages that we actually speak or write, but rather, we think in a meta-language that precedes any spoken language; this language of thought is called "mentalese". Pinker refers to "Whorf's radical position," and argues vehemently against the Whorfian idea that language contains thought and culture, going so far as to declare, "the more you examine Whorf's arguments, the less sense they make." (1994, p. 60)

A more Whorfian approach is represented by George Lakoff, who has argued much of language is essentially metaphor.[6] For instance, English employs many metaphorical tropes that in one way or another equate time with money, e.g.:

  • spend time
  • waste time
  • invest time



Experimental support

The most extreme opposing position—that language has absolutely no influence on thought—is widely considered to be false (Gumperz: introduction to Gumperz 1996). But the strong version of the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis, that language determines thought, is also thought to be incorrect. The most common view is that the truth lies somewhere in between the two. Current linguists, rather than studying whether language affects thought, are studying how it affects thought. Earlier, the bulk of the research was concentrated on supporting or disproving the hypothesis; the experimental data have not been able to disprove it. (Lucy 1992; Gumperz & Levinson 1996)


Linguistic determinism



Fictional presence

  • Jack Vance's science fiction novel The Languages of Pao centers on an experiment in modeling a civilization by tweaking its language. The future planet of Pao, inhabited by peasant cultivators who bow passively to absolute monarchy and are prey to foreign invaders, creates three castes—of warriors, merchants, and technicians—each with a specifically-tailored language designed to instill the appropriate skills and mindsets. As a result the planet overcomes its foreign military invaders and economic exploiters, but becomes dangerously divided into mutually-hostile castes - and this is overcome by developing yet another language, a "pastiche" which combines elements from the languages of the three castes as well as the planet's original language, this pastiche becoming the language of the reunified, versatile society.
  • In Robert A. Heinlein's novella "Gulf," the characters are taught an artificial language which allows them to think logically and concisely by removing the "false to fact" linguistic constructs of existing languages.
  • In Frank Herbert's science fiction novel Dune and its sequels, the Principle of Linguistic Relativity first appears when Lady Jessica (who has extensive linguistic training) encounters the Fremen, the native people of Dune. She is shocked by the "violence" of their language, as she believes their word choices and language structure reflect a culture of enormous violence. Similarly, earlier in the novel, her late husband, Duke Leto, muses on how the nature of Imperial society is betrayed by "the precise delineations for treacherous death" in its language, the use of highly specific terms to describe different methods for delivering poison.
  • Neal Stephenson's novel Snow Crash revolves around the notion that the Sumerian language was a programming language for the human brain. According to characters in the book, the goddess Asherah is the personification of a linguistic virus similar to a computer virus. The god Enki created a counter program which he calls a nam-shub that caused all of humanity to speak different tongues as a protection against Asherah.
  • Linguist Suzette Haden Elgin's science fiction novel Native Tongue describes a patriarchal society in which the overriding priority of the oppressed women is the secret development of a "feminist" language, Láadan, to aid them in throwing off their shackles. Elgin has written extensively in defense of the "weak" form of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (which she prefers to call the "linguistic relativity hypothesis"), including a book titled The Language Imperative[9]
  • In Robert A. Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, Valentine Michael Smith is able to do things that most other humans can't do, and is unable to explain any of this in English. However, once others learn Martian, they start to be able to do these things; those concepts could only be explained in Martian.
  • In Ursula K. LeGuin's Earthsea series (beginning with "The Word of Unbinding," 1964, and A Wizard of Earthsea, 1968), an ancient language (known as the Old Speech) exists in which every object has one and only one true name. In the mythology of the world, this is the language in which the world was spoken into existence; it is still spoken by magicians and dragons. Aside from the special case of dragons, it is not possible to lie in this language. A similar language system is used in Christopher Paolini's Inheritance trilogy (2002), in which a language exists known only as "the ancient language", spoken mainly by elves and magic-users. It is impossible to directly lie in this language (though it is possible to tell misleading truths, or in some cases use metaphor). While most characters in the novels believe that magic is only possible through speaking this language (and thus, can only cast spells which perform actions they can express), it is revealed in Eldest that the language is spoken only to keep spells under control, and magic can be used through thought, though this requires a great deal of focus to achieve the desired effect.
  • In Ted Chiang's "The Story of Your Life," language directly determines thought, Learning the written language used by alien visitors to the Earth allows the person who learns the language to think in a different way, in which the past and future are illusions of conventional thought. This allows people who understand the language to see their entire life as a single unchangeable action, from past to future.





Computer coding language conceptual correlate



  1. Gentner, et. al.; 2003: p.3 wherein the formative text is cited as: Humboldt, W. von (1836). On language: The diversity of human language-structure and its influence on the mental development of mankind (P. Heath, Trans.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (1988).
  3. Whorf (Carroll; Ed.); 1956: pp. 212–214
  4. Whorf (Carroll; Ed.); 1956: p. 207
  5. Whorf (Carroll; Ed.); 1956: p. 208
  6. Lakoff, G; 1993: The contemporary theory of metaphor. In A. Ortony (Ed.) Metaphor and thought (2nd ed., pp. 202-251). New York: Cambridge University Press.
  8. Roger Highfield Science, "Amazon tribesmen pass geometry test." The Daily Telegraph (LONDON) Jan 20 2006.
  9. Elgin, Suzette Haden. "The Link Between Language and the Perception of Reality," excerpted from The Language Imperative, 2000: Perseus Books, Template:ISBN 0-7382-0254-1


  • Rethinking Linguistic Relativity. Edited by John Gumperz & Stephen Levinson. Cambridge University Press. 1996
  • Lakoff, George. Women fire and dangerous things, 1987.
  • Lee, Penny. "The Whorf Theory Complex - a Critical Reconstruction", John Benjamins, 1996.
  • Gentner, Dedre & Goldwin-Meadow, Susan (Eds.) (2003). Language in mind: advances in the study of language and thought. Massachusetts, MIT Press (A Bradford Book). ISBN 0-262-57163-3

See also



External links

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