ling unit9

the Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis

• aka: Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

• different languages may bring about different ways of thinking and different effects on speakers’ behavior

• Edward Sapir (professor)

• Ben Whorf (student of Sapir)

what’s the idea of language affecting perception?

language acts as a filter onto the world, highlighting and obscuring different physical/mental phenomena

criticisms of early linguistic relativity

• language differences don’t seem to cause differences in perception

• not all concepts come to us from language

• linguistic relativity vs. linguistic determinism

• need for better evidence for LRH

linguistic relativity vs. linguistic determinism

• linguistic relativity = weak version of SWH

  • language has a tendency to influence thought

• linguistic determinism = strong version of SWH

  • language fully determines thought + froces speakers to think in pre-set ways

• critics say that determinism cannot be correct, weaker form is still supported

need for better evidence for LRH

• non-verbal evidence is needed, showing that people behave differently when there are differences in their languages

• since 1990s, now been achieved

the formation of concepts

• different experiences produce different concepts

• parallel experience occurs, but different concepts evolve from this experience

• similar experiences occur, but certain concepts fail to be formed in some languages

grammatical differences can influence what? this is shown through what?

• can influence perception + behavior

• shown through the Navajo-speaking children behaving differently from English-speaking peers

what was one example of something that can influence perception?

the availability of toys with Group A to stimulate perception of shape

the linguistic differences in English and Yucatec Maya have effects on what?

the perception of visual scenes

what makes speakers pay more attention to whether humans, animals and things occur singularly or in groups?

the obligatory marking of plural vs. singular distinctions in English

what makes speakers only pay some attention to whether humans and animals occur singularly or in groups, and not things?

the Yucatec Maya optional plural-marker

speakers of egocentric languages have…

words for north, south, east, west, but tend to use left and right more often to describe location

speakers of geocentric languages have…

words for left and right but tend to use north, south, east, west more often to describe location

what affects speakers’ non-verbal behavior?

the dominant pattern of language use

support for LRH + what is important is…

speakers’ common use of their words

consecutive bilinguals

mode of perception remains dominant, even when L2 is acquired

mode of perceptions of both L1/L2 are used

MOP of L1 when L1 is spoken, MOP of L2 when L2 is being used

autobiographical memory

• how we remember things that have happened to us in the past

• our memory of past events is ‘coded’ for the language spoken during the event

• memory retrieval with language used results in better descriptions

linguistic encoding of events

• the language used to access past events imposes a filter on memory

• different languages produce different descriptions of the ‘same’ event

• languages affect the way we can retrieve and describe memory

• not all languages allow same access to past memories

how can language influence the way people interpret events and subsequently assign blame? (Fausey)

• linguistic framing: agentive vs. non-agentive descriptions

• agentive: more specific, increases blame

• non-agentive: more general, decreases blame

how does language influence the size of recommended financial penalties? (Fausey)

• agentive: higher financial penalties as deemed as more responsible

• non-agentive: lower penalties as deemed as less responsible

what was the hypothesis for the Boroditsky reading?

grammatical gender affects how speakers think and describe inanimate objects

how was the hypothesis for the Boroditsky reading tested?

describing adjectives task, similarity task, memory task

what were the results of the Boroditsky reading?

• speakers used adjectives that reflected grammatical gender

• Germans used more feminine traits for grammatically feminine nouns, while Spanish used more masculine traits for grammatically masculine nouns