LINGUISTIC RELATIVITY AND UNIVERSALISM: A JUDEO-PHILOSOPHICAL RE-EVALUATION OF THE SAPIR- WHORF HYPOTHESIS Temima Geula Fruchter 2018 0 LINGUISTIC RELATIVITY AND UNIVERSALISM: A JUDEO-PHILOSOPHICAL RE-EVALUATION OF THE SAPIR-WHORF HYPOTHESIS By Temima Geula Fruchter 2012196057 Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy in the Faculty of the Humanities at the University of the Free State June 2018 Promoter: Professor Pieter Duvenage 1 Contents Dedication ................................................................................................................................. 6 Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... 7 Declaration ................................................................................................................................ 9 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................. 10 Notes ........................................................................................................................................ 12 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................... 15 How this Project Was Born ................................................................................................. 15 The Purpose of this Project .................................................................................................. 18 The Structure of this Work .................................................................................................. 19 PART I .................................................................................................................................... 22 CHAPTER I: THE SAPIR-WHORF HYPOTHESIS ............................................................. 23 1.1. Introduction ................................................................................................................. 23 1.2. Linguistic Relativity .................................................................................................... 25 1.2.1. The development of linguistic relativity .......................................................... 25 1.3. Putting Words into Whorf’s Mouth: Determinism or Relativism?.............................. 28 1.4. Can Linguistic Relativity Be Proven? ......................................................................... 30 1.4.1. Studies in colour terminology.......................................................................... 31 1.4.2. “Thinking for speaking” .................................................................................. 32 1.4.3. Spatial-temporal perception in Kuuk Thaayorre ............................................. 34 1.4.4. Futureless languages and savings patterns ...................................................... 35 1.4.5. What these studies teach us ............................................................................. 36 1.5. Criticism of Whorf and the Linguistic Relativity Principle ......................................... 39 1.5.1. Academic rationale for rejecting Whorf .......................................................... 41 1.5.2. The socio-political rationale for rejecting Whorf ............................................ 42 1.6. Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 46 1.6.1. Moving Beyond W1 and W2 ............................................................................ 47 CHAPTER II: LINGUISTIC NATIVISM AND UNIVERSALISM ...................................... 59 2.1. Introduction .................................................................................................................. 59 2.2. Linguistic Nativism ..................................................................................................... 59 2.2.1. Exchanging one inadequate theory for another ............................................... 60 2.2.2. The bedfellows innateness and universality .................................................... 62 2.3. Proofs and Problems .................................................................................................... 63 2.3.1. Ease of acquisition ........................................................................................... 63 2.3.2. The critical period ............................................................................................ 66 2.3.3. The poverty of the stimulus argument ............................................................. 67 2 2.3.4. Language universals ........................................................................................ 71 2.4. Nativism’s Acclaimed Status ...................................................................................... 76 2.4.1. The underlying rationale: promoting cultural sameness (or, the fuzzy lines between politics and linguistics)...................................................................................... 77 2.4.2. Other contributing factors ................................................................................ 80 2.5. Potential Pitfalls of the Innateness Position ................................................................ 81 2.5.1. Intellectual concerns ........................................................................................ 81 2.5.2. Socio-political concerns .................................................................................. 84 2.5.3. Moral concerns ................................................................................................ 88 2.6. The Dichotomization of Innateness and Empiricism and a Tentative Judaic Resolution . 91 2.6.1. The underlying premises of nativism and empiricism ..................................... 94 2.6.2. What’s really at stake? ..................................................................................... 96 2.6.3. Innateness and empiricism as metaphor: a quest for the Divine ...................... 97 2.6.4. Extending the metaphor of innateness and empiricism: body and soul ........... 99 2.6.5. So what is innate? .......................................................................................... 103 2.7. Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 106 CHAPTER III: THE PHILOSOPHICAL GROUNDING OF INNATENESS AND UNIVERSALISM ................................................................................................................. 110 3.1. Language: Designative or Constitutive? ..................................................................... 110 3.1.1. The designative-instrumental (HLC) view of language ...................................... 111 3.1.2. The constitutive–expressive (HHH) view of language ........................................ 114 3.2. Where the Designative and Constitutive Views Part Ways ........................................ 116 3.2.1. Atomism/holism .................................................................................................. 116 3.2.2. Being more than just an animal + language......................................................... 121 3.2.3. Man as a social being........................................................................................... 126 3.2.4 Free will and self-awareness ................................................................................. 131 3.3. The Merits of the HLC, Despite its Shortfall ............................................................. 135 3.4. Where the Judaic View Parts Ways with the HLC and Intersects with the HHH ...... 139 3.4.1. Lashon HaKodesh and irreducible, non-arbitrary designativism ........................ 140 3.4.2. Human beings as inherently Divine and masters of free will .............................. 142 3.4.3. The Judaic view and social being ........................................................................ 145 3.4.4. Protoplay: the microcosmic experience of endpoint pleasure ............................. 145 3.5. Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 150 PART II ................................................................................................................................. 153 CHAPTER IV: THE JEWISH PEOPLE AND THEIR LANGUAGE ................................. 154 4.1. Introduction ................................................................................................................ 154 3 4.2. Judaism and Linguistic Relativity ............................................................................. 154 4.2.1. Why does linguistic relativity ring Jewish? ................................................... 156 4.3. The Hebrew Alphabet and Linguistic Relativity ....................................................... 163 4.3.1. Whorf’s work on oligosynthetic languages and Hebrew ............................... 163 4.3.2. Hebrew: the chemistry of speech ................................................................... 167 4.4. The Divine Conception of Language in Jewish Thought .......................................... 170 4.4.1. Language: The blueprint of the world ........................................................... 170 4.4.2. Man’s mark of distinction: speech ................................................................