Find English Teachers
Miftakhul Chusna
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
anyone can help me to describe about the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis and give the example..thank you.
Apr 11, 2012 2:10 PM
Answers · 5
1
A view about the relationship between language and thought, proposed by Edward Sapir and his student Benjamin Lee Whorf (1897- 1941). It combines two principles: that language determines the way we think ( linguistic determinism); and
at the distinctions encoded in one language are not found in any other language( linguistic relativity). The existence of successful translations argues against the strong form of the hypothesis ; but some conceptual differences between speakers of different languages can be shown, and there is clear evidence that language does influence the way we perceive, remember and preform mental tasks. (D. Crystal, 1992: 342)
hey and i give you some examples in Farsi:
The south people of iran have different words for "DATE" which is a sweet fruit.
other people in iran call "DATE" only as " KHORMA" but southern people in Iran have different words for this as below:
1. KHARAK
2. ZARAK
3. HALVA
4. QASAB
and people use them for different type of DATES only in that part of Iran. :)
i hope i could help you. ;)
April 11, 2012
Saphir-Whorf theory claims that language and the culture is strongly connected to one another, it is called linguistic relatiivity theory. For example Eskimos use many different words for snow, describing it in ways that would be meaningless to us, people who lived in tropical regions would not have had even a single word for snow, however today due to the mass communication snow is understood all over the world. This is about the connection between culture and language.Hope this helps:)
April 11, 2012
Still haven’t found your answers?
Write down your questions and let the native speakers help you!
Miftakhul Chusna
Language Skills
English, German, Indonesian, Javanese
Learning Language
English, German
Articles You May Also Like

The Power of Storytelling in Business Communication
41 likes · 9 Comments

Back-to-School English: 15 Must-Know Phrases for the Classroom
28 likes · 6 Comments

Ten Tourist towns in Portugal that nobody remembers
58 likes · 23 Comments
More articles