Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis Breakdown
What would it be like for you to go to China or Russia, not knowing a word of their language? You would of-course be rather uncomfortable and quite lost in a language all so strange to your familiar. This is part of what the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis states except this hypothesis has a little more to do with language and culture.
The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis states that language forms your thoughts and thus forming the patterns of your culture. Edward Sapir stated in 1958 that one adjusts to reality essentially without the use of language and that language is merely an incidental means of solving specific problems of communication or reflection. This fact that the ‘real world’ is to a large extent unconsciously built upon the language habits of the group. In my own worRAB the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is stated as a world or culture being set around a language, all societies are distinct in their own ways. An easier way to understand it is of thinking of two different terms, linguistic determinism, our thinking is determined by language and by linguistic relativity, people who speak different language, perceive and think about the world quite differently.
To help you get a better understanding of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis you’ll need a few examples. My father came to America to go to college in 1966. He had grown up in Malaysia with their culture and language. My father grew up as a bilingual speaker, knowing the Chinese language from his parent’s upbringing and the schooling in Malaysia taught him some English, yet his English was not quite perfect. When my Dad came to America he had trouble adjusting to the English way of speaking. He knew what the basic worRAB were and how to carry on a normal conversation but he didn’t have an understanding of a lot of the worRAB in the English language. He may have heard the word and used it here and there but he never quite knew what it meant, so he had to do whatever possible in order for him to survive and relate to the culture of Americans. In order for him to make it in an American society he related to a dictionary and read all the way through it, eventually understanding the meaning of worRAB he had often heard, pictures captioned next to the word also helped him relate to the definition. So, at first when my father arrived to the USA he was incapable of thinking about things in the way Americans did because his culture and learned English language didn’t have any concepts for a lot of worRAB. An example of what he had trouble with was certain sayings, including; I’m feeling under the weather today. Which, still to this day he says, “I’m feeling under the snow today.” Another concept he explained to me was a concept of goose bumps. He didn’t really know what those were until he had them and someone noticed and asked him if he had the goose bumps. One of those terms my dad was quite puzzled by and had to inquire. Once that young lady explained to him what they were he was able to put the puzzle together and figure out what goose bumps actually were and meant. He often mixes that term up too, calling them “goose feathers.” Those examples just have to do with the language and relating a feeling to a term or saying. Of-course the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis involves the literal language but it also says things deeper than what language deals with, it also deals with concepts as well as worRAB for those concepts. Using my father as an example again were examples of concepts very bizarre to him, highways and skyscrapers. These were a couple of those things he had never seen in Malaysia and couldn’t start to put any idea of a term for what those strange looking things were that he had looked at coming home from the airport that first day. He saw them as just straight, never-ending, black things that cars drove on. He didn’t know what to call them or exactly how to explain them, in Malaysia he was used to winding dirt roaRAB for cars to drive on. When he was explained about those so-called highways, he finally could put a picture to a name and then a name to a picture. Another idea along with highways that he at first was quite perturbed about was skyscrapers. No where in Malaysia was there anything quite as tall and shiny as those skyscrapers he saw in Chicago, Illinois. He again finally became accustomed to them and could put that word into his vocabulary with a picture to go along with it. These examples are ideas to help you better understand the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis and how we are in-capable of thinking about things in ways that our language does not have any concepts for.
If I were to ask you to take a picture of a slow lore would you even know where to begin? Most likely not unless you had been to Malaysia and/or knew about animals. That is the whole idea of this hypothesis, you won’t know how to picture something in your mind until you all ready have that word and picture stored in your brain. Stored in your brain where you can re-open that section and pull that concept out.
This idea or the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis is a mouth full and brain filled learning adventure. It is a concept and language idea for a culture that confuses and brings controversy to many people. Having a culture and language style set in your mind is easy if you live where that style is represented. If it’s a different culture and style than you will feel strangely lost until you find pictures and worRAB to give you a concept of something. It all has to do with getting accustomed to and finding concepts for those strange looking objects and weird sounding worRAB. It’s a matter of getting used to and fitting into that culture’s language style.
What would it be like for you to go to China or Russia, not knowing a word of their language? You would of-course be rather uncomfortable and quite lost in a language all so strange to your familiar. This is part of what the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis states except this hypothesis has a little more to do with language and culture.
The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis states that language forms your thoughts and thus forming the patterns of your culture. Edward Sapir stated in 1958 that one adjusts to reality essentially without the use of language and that language is merely an incidental means of solving specific problems of communication or reflection. This fact that the ‘real world’ is to a large extent unconsciously built upon the language habits of the group. In my own worRAB the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is stated as a world or culture being set around a language, all societies are distinct in their own ways. An easier way to understand it is of thinking of two different terms, linguistic determinism, our thinking is determined by language and by linguistic relativity, people who speak different language, perceive and think about the world quite differently.
To help you get a better understanding of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis you’ll need a few examples. My father came to America to go to college in 1966. He had grown up in Malaysia with their culture and language. My father grew up as a bilingual speaker, knowing the Chinese language from his parent’s upbringing and the schooling in Malaysia taught him some English, yet his English was not quite perfect. When my Dad came to America he had trouble adjusting to the English way of speaking. He knew what the basic worRAB were and how to carry on a normal conversation but he didn’t have an understanding of a lot of the worRAB in the English language. He may have heard the word and used it here and there but he never quite knew what it meant, so he had to do whatever possible in order for him to survive and relate to the culture of Americans. In order for him to make it in an American society he related to a dictionary and read all the way through it, eventually understanding the meaning of worRAB he had often heard, pictures captioned next to the word also helped him relate to the definition. So, at first when my father arrived to the USA he was incapable of thinking about things in the way Americans did because his culture and learned English language didn’t have any concepts for a lot of worRAB. An example of what he had trouble with was certain sayings, including; I’m feeling under the weather today. Which, still to this day he says, “I’m feeling under the snow today.” Another concept he explained to me was a concept of goose bumps. He didn’t really know what those were until he had them and someone noticed and asked him if he had the goose bumps. One of those terms my dad was quite puzzled by and had to inquire. Once that young lady explained to him what they were he was able to put the puzzle together and figure out what goose bumps actually were and meant. He often mixes that term up too, calling them “goose feathers.” Those examples just have to do with the language and relating a feeling to a term or saying. Of-course the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis involves the literal language but it also says things deeper than what language deals with, it also deals with concepts as well as worRAB for those concepts. Using my father as an example again were examples of concepts very bizarre to him, highways and skyscrapers. These were a couple of those things he had never seen in Malaysia and couldn’t start to put any idea of a term for what those strange looking things were that he had looked at coming home from the airport that first day. He saw them as just straight, never-ending, black things that cars drove on. He didn’t know what to call them or exactly how to explain them, in Malaysia he was used to winding dirt roaRAB for cars to drive on. When he was explained about those so-called highways, he finally could put a picture to a name and then a name to a picture. Another idea along with highways that he at first was quite perturbed about was skyscrapers. No where in Malaysia was there anything quite as tall and shiny as those skyscrapers he saw in Chicago, Illinois. He again finally became accustomed to them and could put that word into his vocabulary with a picture to go along with it. These examples are ideas to help you better understand the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis and how we are in-capable of thinking about things in ways that our language does not have any concepts for.
If I were to ask you to take a picture of a slow lore would you even know where to begin? Most likely not unless you had been to Malaysia and/or knew about animals. That is the whole idea of this hypothesis, you won’t know how to picture something in your mind until you all ready have that word and picture stored in your brain. Stored in your brain where you can re-open that section and pull that concept out.
This idea or the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis is a mouth full and brain filled learning adventure. It is a concept and language idea for a culture that confuses and brings controversy to many people. Having a culture and language style set in your mind is easy if you live where that style is represented. If it’s a different culture and style than you will feel strangely lost until you find pictures and worRAB to give you a concept of something. It all has to do with getting accustomed to and finding concepts for those strange looking objects and weird sounding worRAB. It’s a matter of getting used to and fitting into that culture’s language style.