Language is more than just a means of communication. It influences our culture and even our thought processes. During the first four decades of the 20th century, language was viewed by American linguists and anthropologists as being more important than it actually is in shaping our perception of reality. This was mostly due to Edward Sapir and his student Benjamin Whorf who said that language predetermines what we see in the world around us. In other words, language acts like a polarizing lens on a camera in filtering reality--we see the real world only in the categories of our language.

1. Language, Thought and Culture
Saeed Jafari
Head of Linguistics Students' Association of University of Kurdistan
s.jafari@hum.uok.ac.ir

2. Inadequacies of the Theory
• (1) Perception, interest, and need determine vocabulary
• (2) Color and snow vocabulary
• (3) Hopi ‘time’ and Chinese ‘counterfactuals’
• (4) Lack of vocabulary does not indicate lack of concept
• (5) Knowledge overrides literal word meanings
• (6) Multilinguals’ view of nature

3. Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf

4. Linguistic Relativity
The hypothesis of linguistic relativity holds that the structure of a language affects its
speakers' world view or cognition. Also known as the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis, or
Whorfianism, the principle is often defined to include two versions: the strong hypothesis
and the weak hypothesis:
The strong version says that language determines thought and that linguistic
categories limit and determine cognitive categories.
The weak version says that linguistic categories and usage only influence thought and
decisions.

5. Perception, Interest, and Need Determine Vocabulary
Psychologists have tried experimentally to determine what effects, if any, knowledge of the
vocabulary of language has on perception or behavior.
Vocabulary is selected for use. Once it fails to serve a need, it falls out of use.
American children, like children in many other countries, are enchanted by dinosaurs. They
can often name 25 or more! It is not the case, however, that they perceive the types of
dinosaurs because of their language.

6. Color Words
There are two formal sides to the color debate, the universalist and the relativist.
The universalist side claims that the biology of all human beings is all the same, so the
development of color terminology has absolute universal constraints.
The relativist side claims that the variability of color terms cross-linguistically (from
language to language) points to more culture-specific phenomena. Because color exhibits
both biological and linguistic aspects, it has become a deeply studied domain that
addresses the relationship between language and thought.

7. Color Words

8. What I See in Photoshop

10. Basic color terms
In the classic study of Brent Berlin and Paul Kay (1969), Basic Color Terms: Their Universality
and Evolution, the researchers argued that these differences can be organized into a
coherent hierarchy, and that there are a limited number of universal basic color terms
which begin to be used by individual cultures in a relatively fixed order.
• monolexemic ("green", but not "light green" or
"forest green"),
• high-frequency, and
• agreed upon by speakers of that language.

11. Dani Language
Some languages have only a small number of color words. The Dani language of New
Guinea has only two colour words, one for light colors and one for dark colors.
Mili for "dark" and "cold" colors
Mola for "light" and "warm" colors
Experimental Tasks:
• Naming colors
• Matching colors from memory
Two Color Names

12. Berinmo, Papua New Guinea Color Perception
Berinmo, a people who live in Papua New Guinea
close to the Dani and who have five color words
in their language
The Berinmo were more apt to match color tokens
together according to their language.
English speakers were more apt to put color
tokens together according to their language.

13. Snow Words
There are dramatic vocabulary differences from language to language. The Eskimos, for
example, have a large number of words involving snow.
In Hawaii, there is only one, the English word ‘snow’.
The Eskimos, have single words for snow-on-the-ground,
hard-snowon- the-ground, block-of-snow, and others.
It’s because of the importance of snow in their lives that
they have created more words for snow than have
Hawaiians.

14. Number vocabulary in the Amazon
Both of these languages have a rather small set of number words. Munduruku has words
only up to the number 5, while Piraha has only words for 1, 2, and many (more than 2)
The dominant view emerging is that, given the proper settings, speakers of these Amazonian
languages would not show a cognitive defect because of their language.
Premack (2005) argue that these limited numerical systems are convenient and suitable for the
needs of these Amazonian speakers, who are hunter gatherers.

15. Hopi Time Controversy

16. Lack of vocabulary does not indicate lack of concept
Simple vocabulary is not a good measure of the concepts that speakers of a language may
hold. It is a fallacy to believe that the vocabulary of a language represents the sum total of
the concepts that a person or culture may have.
Under side,‘palm’ we use a phrase, ‘back of the hand’
if dogs and cats can distinguish one from the other without language, it would be absurd
to think that humans could not do the same thing.

17. New animals, plants, and other things in nature are continually being
discovered. The discoverer notes the difference, then offers a name. Not
the other way around!
There would be no discoveries if we first had to know the name of what it
is we would discover!

18. Knowledge overrides literal word meanings
The fact of the matter is that we can believe something quite different from what the
language literally specifies and that the continual use of a language form may not change
an underlying thought.
‘sun rises’ ‘sunset’ ‘time flies’‘red hair’ ‘white wine’
Such a fact, where one thing is said but another is understood (similar to lying, except
that everyone knows that what is said is not true)

19. Multilinguals’ view of nature
If the language system forms or guides thought in the way we perceive nature, then
multilinguals must be said to have a variety of ways of viewing the physical world.
If the language system forms or guides thought in the way we perceive nature, then multilinguals
must be said to have a variety of ways of viewing the physical world.
The multilingual person is a whole and integrated person who perceives nature as other humans
do.

20. Inadequacy of the theory
If these theorists are correct, we would expect to find differences and similarities in such
essentials as philosophy, religion, politics, or societal structure to be a function of
language.
(1) Same language yet different world views;
(2) Different languages yet similar world views;
(3) Same language but world view changes over time;
(4) Multilinguals have a unitary world view.

21. Refinements
Researchers such as Boroditsky, Lucy and Levinson believe that language influences
thought in more limited ways than the broadest early claims. Researchers examine the
interface between thought (or cognition), language and culture and describe the relevant
influences.
Kay "[the] Whorf hypothesis is supported in the right visual field but not the left".
His findings show that accounting for brain lateralization offers another perspective.