Benjamin Lee Whorf

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Benjamin Lee Whorf (born April 24, 1897 in Winthrop , Massachusetts , † July 26, 1941 in Wethersfield , Connecticut ) was an American linguist who was best known for the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis named after him . He was a trained chemical engineer and employed a fire insurance company.

life and work

He became known through his work on the native American languages, especially Hopi , and through the - controversial - thesis of "linguistic relativity". The latter says that the grammatical and lexical structures of one's own (mother) language have an impact on thinking.

Benjamin Lee Whorf graduated in 1918 his studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as a chemical engineer and started as a fire prevention inspector for the insurance company Hartford Fire Insurance Company to work. This fire insurance had the then unusual idea of ​​having the causes of fire investigated by their own employees in order to be able to prevent future fires. Whorf remained a lifelong employee despite his scientific interests and made a career. Early on, he became interested in the different meanings of various linguistic forms, such as biblical and scientific cosmology. Whorf learned Hebrew and researched the Aztec Nahua languages ​​and Maya . His insight into the phonological nature of Mayan script came too early; his lectures and essays met with little response. Whorf was able to study Pima and Aztec languages in Mexico in 1930 . When Edward Sapir was appointed Sterling Professor of Linguistics and Anthropology at Yale in 1931 , Whorf immediately went to him and studied American Indian linguistics alongside Morris Swadesh , George Trager , Carl Voegelin and Mary Haas . Sapir encouraged Whorf's interest in uto-American languages. He made him aware of the Hopi, and Whorf learned it from informants in New York (until 1935). A famous work on the Hopi linguistic worldview was written around 1936, but was not published until 1950: An American Indian model of the universe . Whorf taught ethnology for a short time at Yale (1937–1938), but he did not want to turn his humanities interests into a profession. But his contribution to linguistics was significant. He achieved a breakthrough with his article on The Relationship of Habitual Thought and Behavior to Language (1939). Shortly before his death in 1941, three articles were published that emphasized the scientific claim of linguistics.

Whorf's interest in linguistics initially focused on studying American and Central American languages. He became known for his work on the Hopi language and for the linguistic principle of relativity , which he developed based on Sapir's work and which became known as the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis . He was a compelling speaker and popularized his linguistic ideas in lectures and numerous articles. He also published numerous technical articles.

Some of the early work was influenced by his work for the insurance company, as fires were often caused by linguistic misunderstandings. In one case, a worker whose native language was not English had placed a bottle of liquid near a heater. The bottle read: "highly inflammable". The worker believed that if “flammable” meant combustible, then “inflammable” meant incombustible (in English the prefix “in” does not always express the opposite of the meaning of the root of the word, unlike “un” in German).

In another case, a boiler that still contained the remains of liquid fuel said: "Empty". An explosion occurred because workers did not believe in the possibility that an empty container could be dangerous.

Whorf's lectures and writings included examples from his work in insurance as well as from his field research and work with informants of Hopi and other American languages .

The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis is primarily concerned with how languages ​​influence thoughts. She says that the language a person speaks affects the way they think. The structure of language thus influences the perception of the environment. This also influences scientific research, since the different departments develop different language structures. However, according to Whorf, the understanding of space and time also has an impact on the understanding of physical theories such as modern relativity . In the Hopi language, it is much easier to understand the theory of relativity due to the linguistically non-existent separation of space and time.

However, Whorf's account of the relevant aspects of Hopi grammar and his conclusions about the Hopi notions of time were later clearly refuted. Whorf was a member of the Theosophical Society Adyar , just as his work is significantly influenced by theosophy . One of his main articles, " Language, mind and reality, " was published in 1942 in the theosophical journal The Theosophist .

Benjamin Lee Whorf died of cancer at the age of 44. His most important works were published posthumously.

literature

  • Helmut Gipper : Building blocks for language content research. More recent language consideration in exchange with humanities and natural sciences. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1963 (on Whorf: Chapter 5)
  • Helmut Gipper: Is there a linguistic principle of relativity? Investigations on the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. S. Fischer, Frankfurt 1972. ISBN 3-10-826301-3
  • Benjamin Lee Whorf; Peter Krausser, translator: language, thinking, reality. Contributions to metalinguistics and the philosophy of language. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1963, ISBN 3-499-55403-8 (= 25th edition 1984)
  • Benjamin Lee Whorf: The grammar shapes our worldview, in: Martin Morgenstern , Robert Zimmer (ed.): Meeting point philosophy. Realities and worldviews. (Vol. 5 of the series) BSV , Munich 2002 ISBN 3-7627-0326-4 & Patmos, Düsseldorf 2002, ISBN 3-491-75642-1 , pp. 21-24

Individual evidence

  1. John B. Carroll, Introduction , Language, Thought and Reality John B. Carroll (Ed.), Cambridge, Mass., 1956, pp. 1-35. All articles listed here also in LTR.
  2. He published the essay The comparative linguistics of Uto-Aztecan , in: American Anthropologist , Vol. 37, 1935, pp. 600-608.
  3. International Journal of American Linguistics , Vol. 16, 1950, p. 67-72. Also:
    • A linguistic consideratiom of thinking in primitive communities (c.1936), in: Language, Thought, and Reality, Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf , JB Carroll (ed.), Cambridge, Mass., 1956, p. 65-86.
    • Grammatical categories (around 1937), in: Language , Vol. 21, 1945.
    • Some verbal categories of Hopi (around 1938), in: Language , Vol. 14.
  4. Science and Linguistics ( Science and linguistics , the MIT Technology Review , 42, 1940)
    • Linguistics as an exact science ( Linguistics as science of exact , in Technology Review, 43, 1940) and
    • Languages and logic ( Language and logic , in Technology Review , 43, 1941).
      • In addition to John B. Carroll, Klaus-Peter Koepping gives an initial overview, Edward Sapir (1884–1939) and Benjamin Lee Whorf (1897–1941) , in: Klassiker der Kulturanthropologie , Wolfgang Marschall (ed.), Beck, Munich, 1990, Pp. 198-225.
  5. Very nicely presented in his contribution to the Sapir Festschrift: The relation of habitual thought and behavior to language , in: Language, Culture and Personality, Essays in Memory of Wdward Sapir (L. Spir et al. Ed.), Menasha, Wisc ., 1941, LTR.
  6. ^ Whorf, Benjamin Lee: Language Thinking Reality Rowohlt Verlag, Hamburg 1963, pp. 102-109
  7. Ekkehart Malotki: Hopi Time. A Linguistic Analysis of the Temporal Concepts in the Hopi Language (Trends in Linguistics, Studies and Monographs, No. 20). Mouton de Gruyter, 1983, ISBN 90-279-3349-9 .
  8. ^ Also in LTR, 1956.
  9. John Algeo: Theosophy and the Zeitgeist
  10. Models of the Universe. Musings on the Language of Benjamin Lee Whorf ( Memento from May 2, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  11. ^ Benjamin Whorf: Language, Mind and Reality

Web links

Wiktionary: Sapir-Whorf hypothesis  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Wiktionary: linguistic determinism  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations