## Notes Whorf suggests that the structure of a language influences its speakers' worldview or cognition. In 1940s, Benjamin Whorf studied Hopi language and claimed that Hopi speakers conceptualized time and space differently. Examples of linguistic relativity: - Pirahã speakers only distinguish between "small", "somewhat larger", and "many" - Guugu Yimithirr speakers distinguish location by cardinal direction. (North-East-South-West) - "The cup is to the north." - The relative ordering of items in time. - When asked to arrange bananas in order of ripeness... - English speakers arrange from left-to-right. - Arabic speakers arrange from right-to-left. - Mandarin speakers arrange from top-to-bottom. - Kuuk Thayorre use cardinal direction arrange from east-to-west! --- ## My thoughts #### Whorf compares Hopi & Western European languages to illustrate how language shapes thought & culture I'll admit this was my least favorite paper of the semester. Whorf's writing could have easily been simplified to express his ideas more clearly. (But perhaps Whorf was merely influenced by the heritage of his Western European ancestors' unnecessarily complex Latin-based language.😉) I had two main problems with Whorf's writing: ###### Incorrect causal direction First, I feel Whorf's gotten the causal direction wrong. That is, language doesn't _primarily_ affect thought and culture, rather, it's thought and culture that primarily affects language. Put briefly: The realities of the Hopi environment and lifestyle would place much more "causal pressure" on language. And likewise with European environment which resulted in less nomadic lifestyle requiring things like time keeping, record keeping, maths, etc. ###### Limited insights Second, his observations are insightful, in a certain sense, but in a more superficial way than he expresses. Yes, language can influence how we think by exposing us to certain ideas or patterns of thinking. However, I don't see how it would do so more than superficially. If we were to take a Hopi person and educate them in more "Western" ways of thinking with regards to time and space, for example, training them to be an engineer, they'd of course be able to adapt while also maintaining their cultural and linguistic ways.