The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

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“Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis” or in other words “Principle of Linguistic Relativity” is based on German philosopher Wilhelm Humboldt (1767-1835). But its truly conceptualized by American ethnographer-linguist “Benjamin Lee Whorf” with his teacher and supporter Edward Sapir at 1930s. According to this idea, the ability of understanding the reality and way of thinking is affected by the structure of language. And suggests that speakers of different languages think, behave and perceive the world differently. Miller & McNeill (1969) offers three different levels for this hypothesis. First, language exactly determines thought. Second, language is not truly determines thought but it determines perceptions. And third, language only determines language-based things. First evidences for language determines thought are proposed anthropologicaly. Whorf examines the American indigenous languages just like “Hopi”, “Nootka”, “Apache” and “Aztec”. In “Hopi Language”, there is no word or gramatical structrue for time perception. Accordingly, Whorf supports that time perception of a person who speak Hopi language is different than a person who speak a language that gramatically addressing time perception. Another subject for supporting Whorf’s theory is the number and diversity of words in the language. While some cultures can provide only one word, the others can provide 8 even 10 words for a notion. For example there is no defination for a camel in Eskimo language, but many for snow,and there are many definations for a camel in Arabic. Althoug it sounds right, the classic formula of Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is denied by contemporary linguists. According to them, creative variables of the hypothesis that taken from Hopi language can be interpreted in different ways. On the other hand, effects of the language structure to world perception is still discussing by etnolingvistik,
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