[lit-ideas] The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 5 Jan 2014 10:57:51 -0500 (EST)
In a message dated 1/4/2014 9:52:27 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
rpaul@xxxxxxxx writes:
The so-called Sapir-Whorf (Whorf was Sapir's student; they did not
collaborate) [theory] has been around for a long time, under the name
'linguistic
relativity.' Most people think it's been thoroughly debunked, although a
'weaker version of it' is still around.
My favourite treatment of this is by D. E. Cooper, formerly of Durham, in
his "Philosophy and the nature of language". He thinks it _has_ been
debunked.
It may be good to go back to R. B.'s original source about the switch
Russian-English in bilingual brains. I don't think the Eskimos that the
Sapir-Whorfians analysed were 'bilingual' in any sense.
I THINK the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis MAY have influenced Quine in his
indeterminacy of translation thesis, with his "Gavagai" (original native
American
utterance of undeterminate 'rabbit' related meaning).
Cheers,
Speranza
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