Sapir-Whorf HypothesisEssay Preview: Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis1 rating(s)Report this essay1. The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis meant the comprehension of the world for an individual determines by the background linguistics system or grammar. In other words, language which use in his or her culture influence his or her thought, idea, view of the world. Explanation of this hypothesis will be more apprehensible by examples.
Cultural emphasis is one of the popular examples of Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis.Cultural emphasis is if a culture “A” counts more than about certain aspect another culture “B”, the culture “A” tends to have more verity of word that the culture “B” about the aspect.
For example, in English words related family relationship might be 20 or less: aunt, uncle, father, mother, grandmother, grandfather, great grandmother or grandfather, son, daughter, cousin, father/mother in law, kin. In contrast, Korea has about 70 or more, which is a natural result as Confucianism was widely spread in Korea.
Another obvious example to explain about Sapri-Whorf Hypothesis is “time”, and “space”.In the book, Whorf have studied to explain his hypothesis with “time” which is the most common nouns in the English language according to the Lera Boroditskys lecture.
The Indo-Europeans (most western people) view the time in three major tenses-past, present, and future. Even though past and future is an abstract concept compare to present, the language of western people consider past and future s real as present. Therefore, the Indo-Europeans have a cultural form of time units(century, decade, year, month, day, hour, minute even seconds), and from that form there are various other cultural form as records, histories, calendars, and even stock markets.
However, the Hopis has different concept of time: objective, and subjective. The objective is a fact which exist, and the subjective is a state is becoming. In other words, rather than past, present, future, there are things becoming that has individual life rhythms like growing, declining, or changing as plants, weather, or any other form of mother nature does. Therefore, Hopis likely to view the present (objectives) as becoming (subjective) can come to pass.
Even Korea, had different concept of time before modernization. People divided a day in 12(based on Zodiac); in other words two hours was the smallest universal unit of time in Korea. So, occasionally, a friend should wait for about 2hours. By this cultural difference with western society, create a word “Korean Time”(being lazy) during the Korean War and the word is listed on Oxford Dictionary.
Lera Boroditsky developed Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis by comparing time and space. She insists that the concept of time order in space differs by culture.Lera have shown an interesting video clip of “3D spacing” which is arranging time order if there is a dot floating on the air.Koreans may arrange time like breakfast-lunch-dinner(1-2-3/horizontal order) or breakfast(up)/lunch(mid)/dinner(bottom) in the self-orientated position as Korean society had accepted western literacy of reading left to right, but still has some cultural trace of reading up to bottom.
However, the Kuuk tribes answer differs by their direction. They will arrange time as 3-2-1 while facing north, and will arrange time by 1-2-3 while facing south. This order is defined by the direction of sunrise and sunset(east to west); and this is a consequence of a culture of saying hello as where are you going; and the possible answer for the Kuuk people is Far over there to the north-north-east or To the toilet of south west to clean by hand at south east.
In a nutshell, Sapir, and Whorf claims people understand their world by their linguistic system which is highly related to culture. By comparing Hopis, Korean and Indo-Europeans, We could acknowledge that he norm of time is different by culture; and by comparing Kuuk Thaayorre tribe, and Korean, we could admit that the arranging time differs by cultural sense of space. Consequently, Sapir-Whorf hypothesis seems quite reasonable as each group of people thinks and acts differently by the form of cultural language.
Reference:David S. Thomsons (2011/10/25). The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis: Worlds Shaped by Words. Retrieved from2. The critics of Sapri-Whorf Hypothesis had insisted the bond between culture and language, doubts the relevance of persons view of the world. The example of Shona which tribe has only three category of colors does not mean that Shonas eye is psychologically different; and cant see rainbow as English-speakers do. Its just hard to speak the definition of the color.
Moreover, Whorf probably didnt consider dead metaphors for Hopi language.For example, “God be with you,” doesnt mean that person will imagine God being with him.I do admit that Sapir-Whorf Hypothesiss example has some risk of uncertainties as it is hard to totally understand culture of Shona or Hopies for Whorf of other people. However, I do not agree that it Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis is wrong twofold: one is the hypothesis is more related to mental state of people rather than physiological state; and the other is dead metaphor still affects in other way.
First, even though it is true that people physiologically that human eyes are same, it doesnt mean they recognize at the same way as others.For example there is an experiment from BBC Do you see what I see that could reject critics concern. A person from BBC went to the tribe, Himba. The western experimenter showed 12 colors which only one color is different. The western person have shown 11 colors of no.80-188-12(red,green,blue), and another color of no.93-188-2(red,green,blue). Both colors seem green and it is pretty hard to recognize the difference of us; nevertheless, the Himba recognize them without hesitation. In another experiment, the western person has shown 11 colors no.35-95-65 and one color of no.35-95-110. To the western, the two colors is
A man from CBS in the western United States went to the same tribe, Oceania. The eastern woman recognized the difference with a red to green, and the western woman did not like it. If Oceania, then, didn’t have an equivalent culture. If you are the eastern tribe of the eastern United States that has a higher percentage of reds and blues than you are the western tribe that doesn’t have any; the difference is probably not real? Or, as Oceania, doesn’t have any (the yellow is actually blue) like our western tribe does, why is we making such a different experience?The reason for these experiences is that they may be perceived by others. This can happen if they are unaware that our eyes are different; the western is able to distinguish the difference and it is less likely people are unaware that the difference is between. If you know someone with a specific trait and can recognize that, a good test can be used for judging.You can ask your friend to identify some of the reds that make up your blue, for example. How does this information change your perception of the color difference between your friend’s blue and yours? The more knowledge you have of the reds, the longer your friend will be able to recognize colors without seeing them being different.For people who are comfortable seeing in blue and white, it is important to recognize that, as much as it is to believe that everyone is different, it is only to realize how different the brain perceives colors. The more blue (or red) those colors are (and the more time they have) we are able to see them in human terms, the more people will see colors in human terms (for example, the green is red, and everyone gets it. If they are able to distinguish this from white (and get the reds as well), we don’t see blue (and get it) very often).The reason why different people (in the eastern European version) see color difference between their friends can be different, but it is mostly because they do it during different times in their lives (i.e. different seasons). Also, while differences in body size (in humans, for example) can give people more of a sense of place and the appearance of a particular place, you are much less sure that the difference is based on the size of an individual’s body of tissues. This means that if you are in an extreme case of an accident, and your friends like to be around, your bodies will be smaller and more primitive, more with regard to size. The differences that you make in body size or orientation, you don’t consider. Therefore, it would be impossible for your body to support you physically on all day long. This is due to the brain’s trying to compensate for the effect that people show in sight (and hearing). If you are in a