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Linguistic Determinism and Mutability: the Sapir-Whorf "Hypothesis" and Intercultural Communication
DOCUMENT RESUME ED 403 761 FL 024 384 AUTHOR van Troyer, Gene TITLE Linguistic Determinism and Mutability: The Sapir-Whorf "Hypothesis" and Intercultural Communication. PUB DATE Dec 94 NOTE 18p. PUB TYPE Reports Evaluative/Feasibility (142) Journal Articles (080) JOURNAL CIT JALT Journal; v16 n2 p163-78 Dec 1994 EDRS PRICE MFO1 /PCO1 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Foreign Countries; *Intercultural Communication; *Language Research; *Linguistic Theory; Research Methodology; Scientific Methodology IDENTIFIERS *Sapir (Edward); Whorf (Benjamin Lee); *Whorfian Hypothesis ABSTRACT The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, long considered a factor in intercultural communication, is discussed. Empirical studies that have tended to validate the hypothesis are reviewed, and the hypothesis is then considered from the standpoint of empirical and scientific research requirements. It is shown that the hypothesis has never been formally defined for testing, and therefore does not exist as a scientifically testable thesis. As a result, all studies that have attempted to interpret empirical data accorded to the hypothesis are either flawed or invalid because they have tested something other than the hypothesis. It is concluded that the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis exists only as a notion, and has no meaningful relation to intercultural communication. Includes an abstract in Japanese. Contains 22 references. (Author/MSE) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION AND CENTER (ERIC) DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL This document has been reproduced as HAS BE N GRANTEDBY ceived from the person or organization originating it. Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. -
5 from Untranslatability to Translatability
5 From untranslatability to translatability This chapter looks at the philosophical, linguistic and socio-cultural underpin- nings of (un)translatability and its limits. ‘Linguistic relativity’ and translation: a historical overview In contrast to the view that language ‘reflects’ the culture of a social group, the ideas that came to be known as ‘linguistic relativity’ imply the very opposite: lan- guage in its lexicon and structure has an influence on its speakers’ thinking, their worldview and their behaviour. While structural linguistics has left the translator with an ultimate uncertainty as to what the full meaning of a particular linguistic form is, this disquietening uncertainty has increased substantially under the impact of theories about the ‘hidden metaphysics’ or worldview that languages are said to embody. In both the traditional mentalist and rationalist-universalist views, language is thought to be but a tool operated by something deeper – thought, reason, logic, cognition – which functions in line with biological-neurological mechanisms common to all human beings. Inside this framework, different languages are seen merely as parallel instruments embodying this universal reason, and varying only along specifiable parameters. On this view, any text can be readily translated from one language into another. Humboldtian and Whorfian views, however, imply the very opposite: language – in its structure and lexicon – has an influence on thought and behaviour, and this influence has important consequences for the possibility (or -
From Philology to Linguistics: the Influence of Saussure in the Development of Semantics
Contents Volume 2 / 2016 Vol. Articles 2 FRANCESCO BENOZZO Origins of Human Language: 2016 Deductive Evidence for Speaking Australopithecus LOUIS-JACQUES DORAIS Wendat Ethnophilology: How a Canadian Indigenous Nation is Reviving its Language Philology JOHANNES STOBBE Written Aesthetic Experience. Philology as Recognition An International Journal MAHMOUD SALEM ELSHEIKH on the Evolution of Languages, Cultures and Texts The Arabic Sources of Rāzī’s Al-Manṣūrī fī ’ṭ-ṭibb MAURIZIO ASCARI Philology of Conceptualization: Geometry and the Secularization of the Early Modern Imagination KALEIGH JOY BANGOR Philological Investigations: Hannah Arendt’s Berichte on Eichmann in Jerusalem MIGUEL CASAS GÓMEZ From Philology to Linguistics: The Influence of Saussure in the Development of Semantics CARMEN VARO VARO Beyond the Opposites: Philological and Cognitive Aspects of Linguistic Polarization LORENZO MANTOVANI Philology and Toponymy. Commons, Place Names and Collective Memories in the Rural Landscape of Emilia Discussions ROMAIN JALABERT – FEDERICO TARRAGONI Philology Philologie et révolution Crossings SUMAN GUPTA Philology of the Contemporary World: On Storying the Financial Crisis Review Article EPHRAIM NISSAN Lexical Remarks Prompted by A Smyrneika Lexicon, a Trove for Contact Linguistics Reviews SUMAN GUPTA Philology and Global English Studies: Retracings (Maurizio Ascari) ALBERT DEROLEZ The Making and Meaning of the Liber Floridus: A Study of the Original Manuscript (Ephraim Nissan) MARC MICHAEL EPSTEIN (ED.) Skies of Parchment, Seas of Ink: Jewish Illuminated Manuscripts (Ephraim Nissan) Peter Lang Vol. 2/2016 CONSTANCE CLASSEN The Deepest Sense: A Cultural History of Touch (Ephraim Nissan) Contents Volume 2 / 2016 Vol. Articles 2 FRANCESCO BENOZZO Origins of Human Language: 2016 Deductive Evidence for Speaking Australopithecus LOUIS-JACQUES DORAIS Wendat Ethnophilology: How a Canadian Indigenous Nation is Reviving its Language Philology JOHANNES STOBBE Written Aesthetic Experience. -
The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis Today
ISSN 1799-2591 Theory and Practice in Language Studies, Vol. 2, No. 3, pp. 642-646, March 2012 © 2012 ACADEMY PUBLISHER Manufactured in Finland. doi:10.4304/tpls.2.3.642-646 The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis Today Basel Al-Sheikh Hussein Department of English Language and Literature, Al-Zaytoonah Private University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan Email: [email protected] Abstract—The Sapir-Whorf's Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis provokes intellectual discussion about the strong impact language has on our perception of the world around us. This paper intends to enliven the still open questions raised by this hypothesis. This is done by considering some of Sapir’s, Whorf’s, and other scholar’s works. Index Terms—perception, language, thought. I. INTRODUCTION Needless to say that the “Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis”, well-known as the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, has been the subject of controversy ever since it was first formulated. Its originator was the American anthologist and linguist E.Sapir. He clearly expresses the principle of this hypothesis in his essay “The Status of Linguistics as a science “(cf. Sapir, selected Essays, 1961). B.L. Whorf reformulated the hypothesis in his 1940 published essay “Science and Linguistics” (cf. Whorf, Selected Writings, 1956). The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis proclaimed the influence of language on thought and perception. This, in turn, implies that the speakers of different languages think and perceive reality in different ways and that each language has its own world view. The issues this hypothesis raised not only pertain to the field of linguistics but also had a bearing on Psychology, Ethnology, Anthropology, Sociology, Philosophy, as well as on the natural sciences. -
On the Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme Donald Davidson
On the Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme Donald Davidson Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association, Vol. 47. (1973 - 1974), pp. 5-20. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0065-972X%281973%2F1974%2947%3C5%3AOTVIOA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-%23 Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association is currently published by American Philosophical Association. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/about/terms.html. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/journals/amphilosophical.html. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. The JSTOR Archive is a trusted digital repository providing for long-term preservation and access to leading academic journals and scholarly literature from around the world. The Archive is supported by libraries, scholarly societies, publishers, and foundations. It is an initiative of JSTOR, a not-for-profit organization with a mission to help the scholarly community take advantage of advances in technology. For more information regarding JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. http://www.jstor.org Fri Jan 11 03:30:37 2008 On the Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme* DONALD DAVIDSON Philosophers of many persuasions are prone to talk of concep- tual schemes. -
REVIEWS Key Thinkers in Linguistics and the Philosophy of Language
The Prague Bulletin of Mathematical Linguistics NUMBER 90 DECEMBER 2008 123–128 REVIEWS Key Thinkers in Linguistics and the Philosophy of Language Siobhan Chapman, Christopher Routledge (eds.) Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005, xii+282pp. ISBN-13:978-0-19-518767-0 Reviewed by Jun Qian, Peking University is dictionary-like book comes as a useful reference book for people interested in lan- guages sciences. ere are eighty entries alphabetically arranged in terms of the linguists’ or philosophers’ surnames. Each entry consists of three parts, with an introduction to the thinker’s essential ideas as the main body, followed by “Primary works” by that thinker, which is in turn followed by “Further reading”. e eighty articles come from thirty contributors (the two editors included). And the eighty ‘key thinkers” are as follows: Aristotle (384–322 BC), Antoine Arnauld (1612–1694), John Langshaw Austin (1911–1960), Alfred Jules Ayer (1910–1989), Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin (1895–1975), Roland Barthes (1915–1980), Émile Benveniste (1902–1976), George Berkeley (1685–1753), Basil Bernstein (1924–2000), Leonard Bloomfiled (1887–1949), Franz Boas (1858–1942), Franz Bopp (1791–1867), Pierre Bourdieu (1930–2002), Karl Brugmann (1849–1919), Deborah Cameron (b. 1958), Rudolf Carnap (1891–1970), Noam Chomsky (b. 1928), Donald Davidson (1917–2003), Jacques Derrida (1930–2004), Rene Descartes (1596–1650), Michael Dummett (b. 1925), John Rupert Firth (1890–1960), Jerry Fodor (b. 1935), Gottlob Frege (1848–1925), Peter Geach (b. 1916), Nelson Goodman (1906–1998), Joseph Green- berg (1915–2002), Algirdas Greimas (1917–1992), Herbert Paul Grice (1913–1988), Jacob Grimm (1785–1863), Michael Halliday (b. -
Applied Relativism and Davidson's Arguments Against Conceptual
精神科学 第49号(2011) Applied Relativism and Davidson’s Arguments against Conceptual Schemes Lajos L. Brons Nihon University In response to Davidson’s ‘On the very idea of a conceptual scheme’ (1974), Lynch (1997), Wang (2009), and others have argued that Davidson did in fact not attack the veryLGHDEXWDVSHFL¿FYHUVLRQRIWKHLGHDQDPHO\4XLQH’s, and that there may be other versions that are (more or less) immune to the attack. Lynch suggests a Wittgensteinian theory, and Wang follows a suggestion by McDowell, but even among the members of the odd band of ‘schemers’ that Davidson explicitly targeted WKHUHPD\EHVRPHWKDWKLVDUURZVPLVV6XUHO\:KRUIDQG%HUJVRQZHUHQRW4XLQ- eans, and Kuhn expressed his dissatisfaction with Davidson’s interpretation on a number of occasions. 'DYLGVRQGLGQRWLQWHQGWRMXVWDWWDFN4XLQHDQFRQFHSWXDOUHODWLYLVPEXWDPXFK broader range of scheme theories, some mentioned explicitly, some suggested by the metaphors he used and borrowed. ‘Conceptual schemes, we are told, are ways of organizing experience; they are systems of categories that give form to the data of sensation; they are points of view from which individuals, cultures, or periods survey the passing scene’ (p.183). ‘Points of view’ is the central metaphor of per- spectivism, which has been ascribed at times to Heraclitus, Leibniz, Nietzsche, Searle, Zhuangzi (莊子), Dôgen (道元), and a few others; and considering the im- mense differences between (the interpretations of) the apparent relativisms of these philosophers, if there is a doctrine of ‘perspectivism’, it is a very heterogeneous one. The point of view from ‘periods’ may be a reference to conceptual relativism in the history of ideas, hermeneutics, philology, and so forth (or could be easily 221 (mis-) understood as such): Pocock’s (1971) paradigms or langues, Foucault’s (1966, 1969) discourses and épistèmes, Gadamer’s (1960) horizons (an intentional- ly perspectivist metaphor), and so forth. -
Edward Sapir
Linguistics Relativity: Edward Sapir’s Perspective on Language, Culture, and Cognition Ronald Maraden Parlindungan Silalahi Bunda Mulia University Abstract Language is a sign system which is used by society to cooperate, interact, and identify. Culture, Society, and Cognition is built based on human perception in their world. It is reflected through linguistics element used by language users for communication purposes. The idea about inter-relation of language and those three elements (Culture, Society, and Cognition) is conducted by an anthropologist and linguist, Edward Sapir. Sapir‟s perspective on culture is highly influenced by some western linguist and philosopher (like Boas, Morris, and Saussure). Sapir believes that language is cultural product. The linguistic constructions in particular language are built from influence mechanisms. Each language related to immeasurable variety of experiences and a limited array of formal categories (both lexical and grammatical). These categories coherently related to the interpretation of experience in the world. Whorf believes that the system of categories in each language provides an unusual system to certain language. Together with Whorf, Sapir conducted a hypothesis. The hypothesis conducted is an idea of differentiating the way of language is encoded cognition category and culture. Their existence in society influences the way of thinking. It influences human thought and action. Language determines thought and linguistics category determine cognitive category. Hypothesis which was conducted by them is named Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. Key Words Edward Sapir, Relativity, Culture, Society, Cognition 1. Introduction Language is an arbitrary sign system, which is used by society to cooperate, interact, and identify. Such language sign form a mutually-dependent relationship between concept and mental characteristic and acoustical picture. -
CLARIFYING DIGITAL TERMS NATO Stratcom COE Terminology Working Group
978-9934-564-45-1 CLARIFYING DIGITAL TERMS NATO StratCom COE Terminology Working Group Published by the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence ISBN: 978-9934-564-45-1 Authors: Neville Bolt, Leonie Haiden, Julian Hajduk, Elīna Lange-Ionatamišvili Contributors to the Project: Gundars Bergmanis-Korāts, Giorgio Bertolin, LTC Robert (Bob) Hobbs, Louise Marie Hurel, Charles Kriel, LTC Federico Lucidi, Sanda Svetoka, LTC Johannes Wiedemann Project manager: Elīna Lange-Ionatamišvili Design: Kārlis Ulmanis Riga, 30 July 2020 NATO STRATCOM COE 11b Kalnciema Iela Riga LV1048, Latvia www.stratcomcoe.org Facebook/stratcomcoe Twitter: @stratcomcoe This publication does not represent the opinions or policies of NATO or NATO StratCom COE. © All rights reserved by the NATO StratCom COE. Reports may not be copied, reproduced, distributed or publicly displayed without reference to the NATO StratCom COE. The views expressed here do not represent the views of NATO. Contents Introduction 4 Background and Rationale for Definitions 24 Glossary of Proposed Definitions 6 How can we test the project? Project Objectives ����������������������������������� 8 (Impact and verifiability) 42 Terminological Tensions - Project Rationale �� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 9 Challenges �� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 10 Using terms outside NATO - What role does context play? �� � � � � � � � � � � � 11 Why terminology and not lexicography? ��������������������������� -
Some Thoughts on the Relationship Between Language and World View with Reference Tothailanguageand Culture 1
SOME THOUGHTS ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LANGUAGE AND WORLD VIEW WITH REFERENCE TOTHAILANGUAGEAND CULTURE 1 Martin Schalbruch2 Introduction: The Study of Thai perception of the world as a Language as a Study of Culture hierarchy. It is also a linguistic represent ation of the different status of men and One of the most important reasons to learn women and the importance of the principle another language is to get acquainted with of seniority. "In a striking way it [the Thai another culture. This may be for reasons of pronominal system] mirrors some of the necessity such as immigration or studies in more important features of Thai culture· a foreign country or for reasons of personal and at the same time it provide~ interest, for instance, in the literature, the considerable scope for the expression of customs or the religion of a different individual attitudes and personality." country. Language is the medium of (Cooke 1968:68) description and communication of religious, indigenous and ideological beliefs In my thesis (Schalbruch 1997), I have and, therefore, functions as a means of examined some features of the Thai conservation and transmission of such language with regard to their capacity as beliefs. It yields a wealth of information on being expressions of Thai cultural culture and also chronicles culture's characteristics. Cultural characteristics are changes. Most people would agree that understood here as aspects of a world view language is one of the most important whose distinctive character has developed sources of cultural information. Metaphors, from religion. Although statements on idiomatic expressions and proverbs cultural characteristics are never of an obviously refer to conditions of everyday absolute nature, because culture {like life, . -
Language and Thinking
1/48 Language and thinking Keith Allan http://users.monash.edu.au/~kallan/homepage.html Abstract People have speculated that language arose through emotively expressive cries, by virtue of human rationality, and from our need to interact socially and maintain advantageous social relations with our fellows. But whichever of these speculations is correct, they all required the biological development for the production of language in speech and its management in the brain. Humboldt seems to have conceived the idea that the interdependence of language and thought was affected by the cultural environment of language speakers (itself responsive to the physical environment) such that different languages reflect the different world-views of their language communities. Humboldt is arguably the originator of the so-called ‘Sapir- Whorf’, ‘Whorfian’ or ‘linguistic relativity’ hypothesis: ‘Die Sprache ist das bildende Organ des Gedanken’ (Humboldt 1836: LXVI). Humboldt judged that because language and thought are intimately connected, the grammatical differences between languages are manifestations of different ways of thinking and perceiving. The structure of language affects perceptual processes and also the thought processes of speakers. Language mediates world- view such that different world-views correlate with different language structures that no sole individual can change; consequently, languages are stable organic wholes. This view passed via Steinthal to Whitney for whom ‘the “inner form” of language’ causes ‘the mind which was capable of doing otherwise has been led to view things in this particular way, to group them in a certain manner, to contemplate them consciously in these and those relations’ (Whitney 1875: 21f) and to Boas 1911, Sapir 1929 and Whorf 1956. -
Research in Foreign Language Teaching Methodology
REPOR TRESUMES ED 013 018 FL 000 521 RESEARCH IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING METHODOLOGY. BY- ORNSTEIN, JACOC LACO, ROCERT PUD DATE MAR 67 FORS FRICE MF-10.25 HC-,I0.76 19P. DESCRIPTORS- '?SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING, *LANGUAGE RESEARCH, *TEACHING METHOCS, ''.'LANGUAGE LACORATORIES, tRESCARCHREVIEWS (PUBLICATIONS), METHODOLOGY, MODERN LANGUAGES, LACORATORY EQUIPMENT, PROWRAME0 INSTRUCTION, AUTOINSTRUCTIONALAICS, EDUCATIONAL RESEARCHERS, A SELECTIVE REVIEW OF CURRENT RESEARCH PROJECTSAND PUOLICATIONS, MAINLY FROM THE UNITED STATES, ON THE METHODOLOGY OF TEACHING FOREIGN LANGUAGES REVEALS MANY IMFORLNT SOURCES FOR FURTHER RESEARCH AND DOCUMENTATIONON MANY FRi-OtEMS. THE NEED TO SUMMARIZE, CLASSIFY,AND CLARIFY IS URGCNT. AMONG CURRENT RESEARCH, TWO DASIC TYFESARE DISTINGUI:7HAME--.THOSE CONCERNED WITH CROAD-SCALE COMPARISONS OF TW.1 PC;i4X)S OR SYSTEMS OF TEACHING, AND THOSEWHICH CONCENT,-; ON A SPECIFIC LIMITED FROCLEM. THE SAMEDICHOTOMY IS c:ICL IN THE RESEARCH UNDERTAKEN TO DETERMINE THE SPECIM _'E OF THE LANGUAGE LACORATORY IN TEACHING.AN ANALYSE& , RESULTS OF METHODOLOGICAL RESEARCH IN THE SOVIET UNION, Fr A.CE, AND GERMANY UNDERLINES THE ADVANTAGESTO CE GAINED .1 AN INTIMATE COLLAEORATION AMONG RESEARCHERS ON BOTH SIDES OF THE ATLANTIC. MANY EXTREMELY FROMISINGRESEARCH PROCLEMS ARE IN NEED OF A CONCERTED ANDINTERDISCIPLINARY ATTACK, AIDED CY THE RICH TECHNOLOGICAL RESOURCESNOW AT OUR DISPOSAL. AMONG SEVERAL PROPOSED TARGETS OFINVESTIGATION ARE (1) A STUDY OF THE APPROPRIATE AMOUNTS AND ORDEROF EXPOSURE TO THE FOUR ACTIVITIES OF LISTENING, SPEAKING,READING, AND WRITING,(2) RESEARCH ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF VARIOUSTYPES OF VISUAL AIDS FOR SPECIFIC ELEMENTS OF LEARNING,AND (3) INVESTIGATION OF NEEDS IN LEXICOGRAPHY IN ORDER TO STIMULATE THE FROCUCTION OF IMPROVED GLOSSARIES ANDDICTIONARIES FOR STUDENT USE.