Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. Video presentation for college Interpersonal Communication course by Assistant Professor Arnold, of the Communication Department at Sinclair Community College, Dayton, Ohio
Subtitles: Does our language affect how we see the world? Does our language affect how I pick white paint I think it does. Long ago there was a researcher and anthropologist by the name of st.Pierre and he emerged some of his studies with a young linguist by the name of Whorf. Together they came up with what we now know as the Savior Whorf hypothesis. I believe that the Savior Whorf hypothesis explains some of our interpersonal miscommunication. According to Cory Floyd, in his most recent interpersonal communication textbook, he defines the Savior Whorf hypothesis as this. Language influences the ways that members of a culture see the world. Our language influences the ways that we in a culture see the world. Now there are two pieces to the st.Pierre Whorf hypothesis, and one sort of unfolds from the other. The first one is called linguistic determinism. I know it is a huge term linguistic determinism. It is the structure of a language determining how we think so in essence our language tells us what to think. Let’s think about this in the most easiest way. In English, here in America our languages revolves around past present and future, and we sort of see the world in past present and future. There are languages for instance that don’t have a future tense and thus a peer Whorf hypothesis particularly the deterministic view says that they don’t see the world the same way we do because we have past present future and they may be only have past and present that our language determines how we think our language determines how we see the world. Let’s go across the world to the Solomon islands. In the Solomon islands, there is a culture there which revolves around coconut it is a high commodity their coconut and in the Solomon islands they have nine words for coconut. Actually they have nine words which represent each of the stages of growth of a coconut which they use for particular purposes. In America we have one word for coconut. A coconut is not that highly valued in our society. Linguistic determinism says that my language will determine how I think about it. So in the Solomon Islands they probably think more importantly for instance about coconut. Then we do in America makes sense. The second principle in the Savior Whorf hypothesis is called linguistic relativism. Because language determines our perceptions of reality how we see the world. Linguistic relativism says people who speak different languages will see the world differently. People who speack different languages we will see the world differently. So let’s take for example these Mandarin culture, there is a word in their society called lao, and it means respect for the elderly. Now in America we have the word respect and we have the word elderly, and we have this concept that we should respect our elders, but in the Mandarin culture they have a whole word for it. Linguistic relativism says that because they have a word they will think about it differently than we do when we don’t have a word. The different cultures with different languages think differently about a concept in this case respect for the elderly. There are even some Savior Worf believers who say because they have a word they respect their elders better than we can, because we don’t have the word. Now let me money this topic a little bit more I think it is already heavy and sort of hard to understand by asking you this. Is it that they respect their elders because the word exists in their language? Or does the word exists in their language because they have such respect for their elders sort of a chichen-or-egg theory and interesting I think to think about in terms of our language. Let me give you another example of the linguistic relativism. In the Philippines, they have 92 words for rice. They eat, breathe, live, and sleep. Unlike here in America we basically have one word for rice we have lots of adjectives to describe it we have white rice and brown rice and basmati rice but we don’t have 92 words for rice. Linguistic relativism says that they may in fact have more importance on rice because they have so many words for it whereas in America it’s not so important. Differnet languages see the world differently. Do those in the Philippines see rice differently than we do? I think they probably do. Several years ago I traveled to Cameroon West Africa and while I was there I had the privilege of spending a day with a linguist and he was telling me about some of his work and his job was to translate the bible into the mother tongue the language of those in a tribe in a very remote area. He said to me that one of the biggest challenges is finding words that matter to thses folks. For instance, there is a passage in scripture that says white than snow and he said to me these folks in Cameroon they have never seen snow they don’t experience. They don’t have televisions to know what snow is they have very few books and even fewer magazines. So his job was to find something in their culture that meat something similar to our whiter than snow. Can they not undersntad the concept if they don’t have the word snow in it? Is a peer Worf believer says no they cannot understand snow unless they have the word they way that we do. There are those who aren’t such heavy believers in st. Perre whorf and they say you know we can still make some words we can still translate something, so that people understand, and that’s what this linguist believed he said for instance he might have to choose a phrase like wider than goat’s milk something that they are very familiar with so they can understand the concept. So my last question for you is who cares why do we need to even know about this a Savior Whorf hypothesis. Well let’s think about it. If language does affect how we think and thinking is out perception. So language affects how we see the world what out perception of our experiences what our perception of words that we are hearing what is our perception. Hasn’t it ever happened where you have had a miscommunication with someone you love your family your friends, your co-workers? Maybe even strangers. Is it possible that Miss communication is hung up on a difference in perception which may stem from a difference in language and it may mean that their language is different because they live in a different part of town. Their language is different because they live in a different part of the country or maybe they live in a different country. Or maybe they grew up in a different part of the country. The more diverse our perceptions, the less able we are to have a mutual understanding with each other which then affects our interpersonal communication. Now let me money this water a little bit. What if someone knows two languages or three or four languages. Wouldn’t it stand to reason that the more languages you know the wider your perception is of life of experiencing the world and there again isn’t it possible that we will interact with people and we probably already do who know two languages or three or four and have a very wide perception. Does savior whorf affect us? Indeed it does.
i am African precisely COTE D'IVOIRE i thank you so much because you clarify those things for me. You are so kind to publish that video through youtube to help everyone around the world to share and understand that hypothesis
Although my professor is pretty against the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, I think there's an element of validity to the theory. I think the core of the argument is really that words and phrases have more than a literal meaning. A single word can literally mean something specific, but the value of the word - who uses it, when is it used, how is it used, what cultural imagery it entails - can be a much more complex concept.
@@karrobat8260 I think the beauty is in being ok with not being able to understand each other always. There will always be a side of her that is a mystery to me.
They have more respect for their elders due to the meaning being personalised as a single denominator. For example calling a colour light blue doesn't convey as much feeling as describing it as cyan, or in more extreme cases caliing one another according to our designation and identity numbers as opposed to using names. So it's more personal and thus becomes more relatable and effective.
In response to her Chicken & Egg question about the word "Lao". Is it not obvious that the culture's possible respect for the elderly came before the word seeing as they created the language? I just think it's a bit too farfetched to believe that early Mandarin Linguist would just be like: "Hey, we should create a word about respecting elders even though we don't right now as a culture!" Thoughts?
Eric Taillon I thought so too. Same with the many names for rice. Surely because other cultures rely on rice far more than American culture, the words grow from the cultural importance rather than vice versa?
+Eric Taillon Exactly. It seems obvious that it's culture and history that makes a group of people value certain things (coconuts, the elderly, rice) more than in the US, and not having more words. They're justifying in the wrong order.
It is farfetched, and it's a reason that this hypothesis is heavily criticised. Although, it did give rise to discussion on how language can affect the way that a person thinks, as oppose to it only being the case that language is built around the culture and the need for a word to describe a cultural phenomenon. For example, native speakers of languages that have a gender system retain this idea of inanimate objects possessing a gender even when speaking in English. It almost impossible to forget it after learning it. So whilst a Spanish speaker would describe a bridge as strong and robust, a German might describe them as elegant or slender, due to the word bridge having a different gender in each language. In this case, language has directly influenced the person's way of thinking, and perhaps how they approach certain things. But this doesn't mean that German and Spanish speakers are unable to comprehend the idea that inanimate objects don't actually possess a gender. It doesn't mean that German speaker cannot view a bridge as strong. And this is where Sapir/Whorf's hypothesis falls down. In most cases, it is the culture that influences the language, and in cases where it doesn't, different methods can be used to translate a unique concept. They certainly gave rise to an interesting discussion though.
I think the important factor is precision. All languages can speak about anything, but some have the ability for more precise discussion of certain things. English can speak more precisely about tenses but not coconuts or rice.
When I first encountered this hypothesis in college I wondered what the effect on thought would be if someone spoke a natural language where logical fallacies were also grammatically incorrect. I imagine this would lead to a very logical society that is very dull lacking irony, symbolism and metaphor. Another thing I wonder about is how changes to the way we use language changes our thinking. When my toddler daughter was being evaluated for learning disorders the psychologist commented that one of the best predictors of intelligence is vocabulary. Does learning more words make us smarter because it gives us new ways to think or does getting smarter cause us to acquire and use more words?
I am bilingual between Japanese and English and knowing two languages makes me more confused at times, rather than a holder of wider perspectives. This is not to object to what you say but to respond to your comments.
@@ramenstrings6036 Oh I see! Thank makes sense, actually, when I look at the keywords "determinism" and "relativism". Both completely different meanings. Thanks!
of course the language shapes the way we see the world - how we see the world - Pillow talk - is pillow talk - and it is a deeply-rooted word and concept in English. In italian you can see the concept of course - but we don't have such a defining word. in italian is something like - the talking that you do when you are in bed .... too long and in fact the concept in not as deeply-rooted as it is in English. and i know that there are thousands of example of this kind.
I feel while Sapir Whorf may not be absolute tautology, but there is some degree of truth to it. And thats the case with most major linguistic theories - chomskyan, probabilistic etcetera
i love it when she says here in America.... Do the Americans believe they own the whole continent because they have a word for it, or do they have a word for it because they actually believe that?
It however may add to the clarity with which we can see reality, like words themselves also do. (So words, concepts (which exist out of words) and composite or complex concepts, may be seen as the building blocks of our perception. But we get those from reality, it may be that we use words wrongly, or have wrong concepts (which are contradictary to reality), or wrong relationships between concepts (Seeing causal effects between the wrong things) (superstition, atheism etc).
@eliasola4life She said she was in Cameroon several years ago, and she didn't mention in what city I think, so maybe at the time and place there weren't televisions. I live in Peru. Many people have a television where I live, but there are still small villages in the mountains that don't have electricity, much less television.
So you used the examples of coconut and rice for linguistic relativism and determinism,but what are the differences? You said both coconut is valuable in Solmon island and rice is also valuable in Philippines.
I'm a Filipino and I only know two Filipino words for rice. Am I extremely ignorant, or is she counting words for rice in different Filipino dialects that are distinct from each other, and are not used together (essentially different languages).
I'm always sceptical of the "this many words for this one thing" thing. Do they actually have 92 different words for rice? Or is the language just structured differently so that they would create a unique word for something that we in English would modify with an adjective? It's like the whole Eskimos have 50=something words for snow. As if they have words when we only have one. They don't really. They just have unique words for different types of snow. Snow, sleet, hail, powder, packed snow, dirty snow.... it's not as strange as it's made out to be.
we have many words for things we use on. for example potheads use many words for pot because their lives revolve around them, just like philipines have 93 words for rice because their lives revolve around them so much. and you can easily find words that mean the same thing by looking up synonyms lol
buk lau The difference isn't a tautological issue (synonymous). This vid is discussing/highlighting different aspect's of a certain object/concept that can carry different states of being to different cultures/persons. If somebody has a limited perception or language they can only understand or define by such personal faculties.
Ok so I believe this is true, but I believe it may be possible to work another way. I spent years obsessing over the group wookiefoot. What I found was that almost all their songs had multiple layers of true meaning, after a while I started seeing multiple layers of meaning in EVERYTHING, I tried explaining it to people but I just sounded insane I spent 5 years trying to forget it but I was unable to completely shake the perspective. I think this can go beyond just a language, I think it can also go for how we use our language. If someone speaks in multilayered metaphor constantly and someone learns to interpret it I think it can unlock a perception of multiple dimensions in our everyday environment. Has anyone else had this happen to them or am I just a whack job?
So you can explain what 'snow' is and that it is 'white,' but the cultural significance of it can be lost in translation. A person from a snow-less region can learn that snow is the colour white, and understand the comparison between a white object and white snow, but the deeper cultural meaning of the phrase - when that phrase has been used, its significance in the arts, the enormous symbolism inherent in 'white' and 'snow,' these are layers of meaning that are lost in translation.
The hermeneutics of perception is partly based upon concepts which are engraved in words, but others may also be in math f.e. or experience (even though experience is interpreted in words). Does the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis change my life? No, if it is true, it doesn't. For if it is true, it means that it exist in reality and reality does not get any ontological value from being described. In which case it is not sapirwhorf that changes our life. (the ability to articulate and discern reality)
I respect my elders very much. I was raised by my family to respect my elders to respect men and to have some respect for children. I can see the idea behind this theory though. I can see where words might influence the way we think. Disagree with people not having a word and not understanding it. There are some things I dont have words for yet I understand. Agree language is different everywhere. Overall good video. Makes you think.
Are the 92 words on rice based on 92 versions of rice or just a cultural term used? If a Chinese child lived their sensory & pre-motor stage in China but moved to Great Britain then what particular world will they be seeing?
" the more diverse our perceptions, the less able we are to have a mutual understanding with each other", she said. And that is why everybody should speak English.
The coconut example seems rather subjective. The idea that a coconut is valued more in the Solomon islands than in the U.S can't just be a matter of Linguistic Determinism. What about the cultural representation or even more, the fact that coconuts appear in greater numbers due to harvesting? I think numerious factors contribute to the value, Language being only a minute cause.
Fascinating - in italian we do not have the expression - zoo daddy - yes we have the concept but to express that we nee a whole long phrase. English has a higher level of definition of the concept that are in our reality. I would like to write a book about that starting from the translation of English into Italian. But i am not a systematic person so i think i will never do that. i am italian - i have been teacher of English - and i am sure Whorf is right - English and Italian are two different planets - and to travel from one planet to the other - is a hard task - yes of course you can translate one into the other - but it is just when you translate that you notice how different they are - and that certain concept that go with words remain ofter untranslated - perception of course in perception for an italian and for an english person - fact is that English divides perception and concepts in a different way from italian - and that is a FACT.
Wow, you don't like Chomsky, eh? I had no idea he was, "responsible for the complete removal of any real connection with different cultures and languages". Can you tell me how you know this? (I thought I liked Chomsky.)
I don't have the same thoughts as everyone else that speaks English, so linguistic relativism isn't true. The weak argument could be true, but the strong argument isn't. There were some researchers using Hopi as an example for the strong argument, but that's been debunked.
i know 3 1/2 languages (one is really bad, so that counts as half :P). i might be able to c the relations between stuff. like for pokemon lovers, the 1st time i saw the 4th gen starters, turtle, monkey n a penguin. i immediately think of a legendary turtle with an island (world) on its back, son goku (journey to the west, monkey king) n poseidon, all mytholgy creatures, but no one saw it back then
Only a person who doesn't' hold a linguistics degree would've promoted such lies--that means you are wrong. Take a class or two to understand what your confusion is all about. A little clue--there is no clear present tense in English and no future tense (and that's it for your free education)
She has several things pretty poorly put, she should have said xiaoxun, filial piety, lao is basically just old. The monoligunist and well funded autocratic academic Chomsky is responsible for the complete removal of any real connection with different cultures and languages and the different experiences.
Or perhaps there are 92 words for rice in the Philippines because there are about 92 different dialects in the country. Something you might want to consider before posting an "informative" video would be to do some research...Just a thought.
Gonna have to disagree with the 老 example. It means "old." That's it. Taoist culture just foists upon them a greater imperative to respect their elders. And as for the Filipino rice words, 92 is way off. That figure has to include technical and scientific terms. It's unfortunate because the use of these two hyperbolic and questionable examples undermine the truth of the Sapir-Whorf Hyp.
this is not in line 100 per cent with what she says in the video - but - it is equally important for me -------------- english is stunning at times - you have many words to mean rubbish - RUBBISH - GARBAGE - TRASH - LITTER - WASTE - DUMP - in italian - for what i know we have only 3 - strange - because i think we have a big problem with garbage in certain areas ... .hahahahahah
This could be due to the fact that English was initially a patois, then creole language of various Scandinavian and other languages. All of them combined to be bastardized versions of all the different tongues meshed to what we now know as English.
great i'm no english major but im pretty sure we dont even have 5 words for the same thing....soooooooooooo does that mean we don't care about anything...lmfao
