The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, named after Edward Sapir (1884–1939) and Benjamin Lee Whorf (1897–1941) states that language influences, rather than strictly determines, how individuals interpret reality and the structure of a language shapes the speaker's cognition, perception, and thought patterns. The core aspects of the theory are linguistic relativity. Some versions of the theory suggest that languages absolutely determine one’s thought; a stronger notion known as linguistic determinism, while others argue that language simply influences thought in subtle ways.
The idea was first expressed explicitly by 19th-century thinkers such as Wilhelm von Humboldt and Johann Gottfried Herder, who considered language as the expression of the spirit of a nation. Members of the early 20th-century school of American anthropology including Franz Boas and Edward Sapir also approved versions of the idea to a certain extent, including in a 1928 meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, but Sapir, in particular, wrote more often against than in favor of anything like linguistic determinism.
Then, Sapir's student, Benjamin Lee Whorf, came to be considered as the primary proponent as a result of his published observations of how he perceived linguistic differences to have consequences for human cognition and behavior. The source of the hypothesis is also found in the writings of Wilhelm von Humboldt, and further development is found in the writings of Heymann Steinthal, Franz Boas, Edward Sapir, Benjamin Lee Whorf, Carl Voegelin, and Dell Hymes, among others. Harry Hoijer, another of Sapir's students, introduced the term "Sapir–Whorf hypothesis,” even though the two scholars never formally advanced any such hypothesis.
An example of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is how sexist language influences the way in which our society views men and women. For instance, we use words like fireman, policeman, and male nurse. A study on Gender-Fair Language by Sczesny S., Formanowicz M., Moser F., has shown that when people read or hear such job titles, they are more likely to picture men doing these jobs and not women.
Another study, “Representation of the Sexes in Language,” showed that when we use words that are more neutral, like firefighter or police officer, this bias gets smaller. This shows us that language does have an effect on how we think and what we expect even if it does not completely control our thoughts. It supports the idea that language can shape how we see the world and what we think is normal which is related to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. Language does not decide what we think; it influences how we look at things and what we expect to happen.
As the emphasis on the universal nature of human language and cognition developed during the 1960s, the idea of linguistic relativity became disfavored among linguists. However, during the late 1980s and early 1990s, advances in cognitive psychology and cognitive linguistics renewed interest in the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis.
Although Whorf died in 1941 at age 44, leaving multiple unpublished papers, his ideas continued to influence linguistic anthropology through scholars like Hoijer and Lee, who both continued investigating the effect of language on habitual thought. Today, the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis remains a central topic in debates about the interaction between language, culture, and reasoning, not as a blatant document, but as an evolving framework for understanding how linguistic systems can shape human experience.
