Questions tagged [sapir-whorf-hypothesis]
A hypothesis of linguistic relativity which states that the structure of a language is not only a way to express ideas, but that it affects the ways in which its speakers conceptualize their world.
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False-belief verbs
Some languages, including Mandarin and Cantonese, have a dedicated belief verb that one uses for describing false beliefs. For instance, in Mandarin, yiwei is used to describe beliefs that the ...
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Sapir-Whorf vs. Chomsky
Can somebody let me know if this is a reasonable explanation for how the two theories are similar and different? This is not for homework, I'm just try to understand the difference, and my textbook ...
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What are some good books/publications that discuss the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis?
I'm particularly interested in works that explore empirical evidence for linguistic relativism and/or discuss implications on the limitations of cognition within a language.
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Are universal grammar and Sapir-Whorf really competing theories?
I consider myself a neo-Whorfian and see major flaws in universal grammar, but it doesn't seem to me like they are truly competing theories. Cutting out all of the parts about how language is acquired ...
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Perception of time
In most cultures and languages, the future is associated with direction ahead of the speaker, while the past is "behind".
However, it is the opposite in modern Chinese where future is "behind" and ...
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Does language influence thinking skills or cognition
I have an intuition, and Hypothesis, that the native language we speak is responsible for our cognition and thinking skills.
e.g. Hebrew speaking people would have poor spatial ability compared to ...
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Could we apply Neo-Whorfianism to parameters in the P&P sense?
I am no expert on Sapir-Whorf lore. But I understand it usually concerns itself with semantics and the lexicon.
Would it be possible, do you think, to look at languages with similar and different ...
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Does native language influence intelligence quotient?
This is a sensitive question, but there should be enough evidence of the correlation, if any, between the language spoken in different regions and their average IQ.
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If there is a correlation ...
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Sapir-Whorf hypothesis and Gender Identity: Empirical Studies?
The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis states, briefly put, that linguistic structures affect cognitive processes. I am interested in finding out how much is known about the development of gender identity from ...
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Does grammar condition our conclusions and opinions?
I have learned two languages from childhood: English and Malayalam. I find it that most of the time when I think and reflect, my thoughts are mostly expressed in English.
Now, the interesting part is, ...
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Do subject-object-verb language users perceive the world differently than SVO or VSO users?
So based on linguistic relativity, I'm wondering if there are any ways that people perceive the world differently based on sentence order, or rather, if this has even been studied at all?
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Seemingly discipline-wide dismissal of Linguistic Relativity and Post-Structuralism: Who still works with and supports these theories?
Many academics appear to immediately dismiss the mention of linguistic relativity/ Sapir-Whorf hypothesis because its been... supposedly debunked? I am wondering if the theory's critics offer a ...
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Can any one experience the World without a language? if yes to what extent, if no, why not?
I am exploring of a possibility of experiencing the world around without a language. By listening, speaking, seeing and reflecting on words made by the alphabets of a language - one experiences the ...
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Are there ways to convey any type of knowledge from one language to another?
In terms of linguistic possibility, is it possible to translate any term from one language to another? Expanding, to what extent is it possible to translate scientific or philosophical terms, for ...
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