Linguistic relativity

The Sapir -Whorf hypothesis states that language thinking forme.

It is one of several hypotheses that deal with the relationship between language and thought. This involves the question of how a given language with its grammatical and lexical structures affects the world experience the linguistic community concerned.

In the 19th century William developed by Humboldt in a Foreword (entitled On the diversity of human language construction and its influence on the mental development of the human race ) to a typological study of the Kawi languages ​​the term inside linguistic form, often in the direction of Linguistic relativity is interpreted. In his successor Leo Weisgerber represented his concept of linguistic worldview.

Benjamin Whorfs thoughts are very similar to those of Humboldt, however, it is not clear whether it was aware of Humboldt's work.

The Sapir -Whorf hypothesis

In linguistics, the Sapir -Whorf states hypothesis that the way how a person thinks highly of grammar and vocabulary ( semantic structure) is influenced or determined his mother tongue. It follows that there are certain thoughts of a single person in a language that can not be understood by someone who speaks a different language. The controversial assumption was erected by Benjamin Whorf, who refers to the linguist Edward Sapir and the hypothesis represented together with him. Whorf himself was a chemical engineer and had acquired his knowledge of linguistic self-taught.

The hypothesis became known in the 1950s when Whorfs writings on the subject were published posthumously.

The Sapir -Whorf hypothesis is composed of two theses: the principle of linguistic relativity (fur ) and the dependence of the formation of concepts of the language. Assuming a linguistic determinism, it follows a principle untranslatable foreign language texts.

Principle of linguistic relativity

Definition

The principle of linguistic relativity states that "the languages ​​extralinguistic reality not all split in the same way ", as it nets [ or more simply and accurately: cards] are thrown with different mesh about reality.

This definition, the principle of linguistic relativity ( in the diction of fur ) is to be distinguished from the linguistic relativism, which concerns the dependence of thought on language ( see below).

Examples

With regard to the principle of linguistic relativity, one must differentiate between the dispute over alleged individual research results, especially those of Whorf, and distinguish the findings ultimately unproblematic.

Whorfs research among the Hopi Indians were empirical follow-up " for T. questioned "or clearly refuted.

The standard examples are:

• Differences in terms of colors. This area of ​​research is a study by Brent Berlin and Paul Kay back (see references ): German: green, blue, gray, brown Welsh: gwyrdd ( for green), glass (green, blue / gray), llwyd (shares of " gray" and " brown ").
• Culturally relevant concepts are reflected in the lexicon of a language. From Whorf even this was illustrated by the supposed existence of an allegedly enormous number of Eskimo words for snow, but is considered refuted. Another example cited are lexemes for the rice in Japanese.

Cases of so-called lexical incongruity ( Not congruence in vocabulary) also be argued independently of the Sapir -Whorf hypothesis:

It is known to " wood forest tree example " of Louis Hjelmslev, who pointed out that the content area " Tree - Wood - Forest " in Danish, French and German is structured differently: " træ - træ - skov " in Danish and " arbre - bois - bois" in French.

This between linguistic and intra- linguistic - and a corresponding synchronic and diachronic - finding leads in the lexical semantics for the study of semantic fields.

Empirical research

While it was assumed earlier that the approximately 6000 languages ​​of the world differ in their grammatical structure, although these differences, however, are not very extensive, growing research into smaller, more exotic looking for us Languages ​​has shown that partially exist drastic differences in language structure. At least since the 1990s, continued through the grammatical development of ever- more, even non-European languages ​​, a veritable boom of empirical research on the question of whether language influencing thought, a. Were examined here, for example, Differences in the linguistic conceptualization of time or the effects of different Numeralklassifikatorsysteme. This value is in recent years increasingly placed on psycholinguistic processes which operate with non-language tests in order to avoid a circular argument: if language affects thought, an experiment must measure the thinking according to this line of thought, and must not be based on linguistic input or measure. linguistic output. Overall, empirical evidence suggests that actually takes place such an influence of language on thought, this seems to degrade relatively quickly, however, when learning a foreign language.

The controversy the interpretation of linguistic relativity

Controversial is the interpretation of this structure and language function of the meanings of words:

If you have the basic distinction between word and concept either not noticed or does not participate due to a nominalist position, the linguistic relativity principle seems necessary to lead to a conceptual relativism. Thus we read in the previous version: " Centrally located in the Sapir -Whorf hypothesis is the idea of ​​linguistic relativity, which states that the conceptual differences between related terms in a language are often arbitrary, and are only valid for that language. "

In more realistic perspective of the principle of linguistic relativity states only that the meaning of linguistic signs due to their arbitrariness and conventionality indeed depends on the structure of each word field, the fact does not detract from the one objective reality and in their recognition.

In difficulties, however, a rationalist, cognitivist epistemology seems to get. At least for Hjelmslev was for his example ( above) states that the "concept " forest " a linguistic and not a general, language-independent cognitive way of thinking " is.

If you sit a realistic knowledge from position, it plays an empiricism counter or vice versa: To support an empiricist premise, you go from a basic untranslatable (see below).

The dependence of the knowledge of the language - linguistic determinism or relativism?

→ see also: universalism or Linguistic Relativism - Chomsky Whorf

To be distinguished from the phenomenon of linguistic relativity is the extent to which human knowledge is conditioned by the language.

The Sapir -Whorf hypothesis goes beyond the assumption that the semantic structure of a language limited by the world either determined or the possibilities of concept formation. It is the " assumption that the learned (mother ) language experience, the thoughts and actions of people determiniere, each language conveys a specific view of the world "; the thesis that language shapes our world view.

It should be emphasized that the specific content of the Sapir -Whorf hypothesis is not the influence of language on thought, but the assertion of a causal overriding influence of the language, you can not escape, even if you know about him. The Sapir -Whorf hypothesis is also linguistic relativism ( in the narrow sense, Eng. Linguistic relativism ), called in an extreme form of linguistic determinism also (English linguistic determinism ).

A linguistic determinism represented basically previously Wilhelm von Humboldt, the hypothesis of the linguistically mediated " world view " represented in the 19th century. An empirical evidence could not be provided until today, although this was often tried. However, it was a controversial study by economist Keith Chen of Yale School of Management published within the Euro crisis, in which he shows how strongly ultimately the economic behavior including savings rates and asset accumulation of the local language should be determined.

As an example of how the language affects the perception of an event is led Whorf Benjamin Lee Whorf worked as an inspector for an insurance company. There he investigated claims. A boiler which previously contained liquid fuel was marked with an inscription: "empty". There was an explosion, because the workers did not believe in the possibility that an empty container can be dangerous. The word " empty" had taken them the opportunity to think of a danger. A relevant information would have been: "Caution! Boiler may contain explosive gases. "

Effect on the possibility of translation of foreign language texts

The Sapir -Whorf hypothesis leads to the thesis of the fundamental untranslatable foreign language texts. This is a problem of translation theory.

Criticism

The Sapir -Whorf Hypthese was originally developed from research on the Hopi language, conducted by Benjamin Lee Whorf. He discovered that the Hopi language contains no words, grammatical forms, constructions or expressions that refer directly to what we call time or to past, present or future. However Whorfs supposed fieldwork -based only on secondary sources. He included all his information about the Hopi language Hopi from a single - versed in New York, an empirical verification of its assumptions with native speakers on site was not made. 1983 could prove the linguist Ekkehart Malotki that the Hopi about complex ways to express tenses, have. Thus one of the main motivations for building the Sapir -Whorf hypothesis was untenable.