Language and Culture- Based On Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

The relationship between language, thought and ‘reality’ has fascinated linguists and philosophers for centuries. Two of them are Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf who are well-known for Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis or Whorfian Hypothesis.

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
The Hypothesis or Linguistic Determinism: People from different cultures think differently because of differences in their languages.

Example: A native speaker of Hopi perceives reality differently from a native speaker of English because she/he uses a different language.

But, most of sociolinguists accept the claim of Linguistic Relativity, that language influences perceptions, thought, and at least behavior. Then, based on many evidences, at last Whorfian Hypothesis/Linguistic Determinism cannot be maintained.

Some Evidences that language influences perception

• Colors and shapes in some cultures support the principle of Linguistic Relativity.
• The Garo of Assam, India, have dozens of words for different types of baskets, rice and ants. They have no single word equivalent to the English word ant.

Grammar and Cognition
Grammatical categories such as tense, aspect, and gender encode aspects of reality differently in different languages. The concept of time in different areas/cultures is different each other.

Discourse Pattern and Culture
Cultural differences between the discourse patterns of the majority and minority culture can often have serious consequences.
Example: 

• Aboriginal society in Australia place great importance on indirectness, especially relating to location and time. So, Don’t say, “You were at the store?”, rather “I heard there was a big argument at the store yesterday”. However, they use direct questions for eliciting ‘substantial’ information such as important personal details, reasons for behaving in a certain way, etc.

And now let's think about..?

• What about your culture???
• Do you have certain kinship system?
• Linguistic categories?
• Color Terminology?