Language, Thought, and Reality (Classic Reprint): Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf - Couverture souple

Benjamin Lee Whorf

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 1330318021 ISBN 13 : 9781330318027

Editeur : Forgotten Books, 2018

Synopsis

How language shapes what we see and how we think Discover the ideas of Benjamin Lee Whorf in this collection of his most influential writings. The book explores how the language we use can influence our view of reality, from everyday events to scientific concepts.

Whorf argues that thought is partly built by language, and that different linguistic systems can lead to different ways of understanding the world. The selection includes clear, concrete analyses—such as how Hopi and other languages handle time, space, and causation—and shows why some Western assumptions about language and thinking may miss important differences found in other tongues.

• Clear explanations of Whorf’s two core ideas: language shapes thought, and different languages encode different worlds.


• Accessible examples comparing Hopi, Chinese, and other language families to illustrate linguistic relativity.


• Discussion of how grammar, numbers, and tense systems influence perception and categorization.


• Context on Whorf’s methods, the development of his hypotheses, and his impact on linguistics and cognitive science.

Ideal for readers of linguistics, anthropology, and cognitive science who want a foundational look at how language and reality may be linked.

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur

Excerpt from Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf

Once in a blue moon a man comes along who grasps the relationship between events which have hitherto seemed quite separate, and gives mankind a new dimension of knowledge. Einstein, demonstrating the relativity of space and time, was such a man. In another field and on a less cosmic level, Benjamin Lee Whorf was one, to rank some day perhaps with such great social scientists as Franz Boas and William James.

He grasped the relationship between human language and human thinking, how language indeed can shape our innermost thoughts.

We are thus introduced to a new principle of relativity, which holds that all observers are not led by the same physical evidence to the same picture of the universe, unless their linguistic backgrounds are similar, or can in some way be calibrated.

Indo-European languages can be roughly calibrated - English, French; German, Russian, Latin, Greek, and the rest; but when it comes to Chinese, Maya, and Hopi, calibration, says Whorf, is structurally difficult if not impossible. Speakers of Chinese dissect nature and the universe differently from Western speakers. A still different dissection is made by various groups of American Indians, Africans, and the speakers of many other tongues.

Whorf was a profound scholar in the comparatively new science of linguistics. One reason why he casts so long a shadow, I believe, is that he did not train for it. He trained for chemical engineering at M.I.T., and thus acquired a laboratory approach and frame of reference. The work in linguistics was literally wrung out of him. Some driving inner compulsion forced him to the study of words and language - not, if you please, the mastery of foreign languages, but the why and how of language, any language, and its competence as a vehicle for meaning.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Forgotten Books
• Date d'édition: 2018
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1330318021
• ISBN 13: 9781330318027
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 300
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