Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf [Paperback]

Benjamin Lee Whorf (Author), John B. Carroll (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 5873833710 | ISBN-13: 978-0262730068 | Publication Date: March 15, 1964

The pioneering linguist Benjamin Whorf (1897--1941) grasped the relationship between human language and human thinking: how language can shape our innermost thoughts. His basic thesis is that our perception of the world and our ways of thinking about it are deeply influenced by the structure of the languages we speak. The writings collected in this volume include important papers on the Maya, Hopi, and Shawnee languages as well as more general reflections on language and meaning.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"An essay showing why Hopi is superior to English as a scientific language, a criticism of Basic English as Complex English, and an account of the semantics of fire prevention are not only readable but delightful."--The New Yorker

Product Details

• Paperback: 290 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press (March 15, 1964)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 5873833710
• ISBN-13: 978-0262730068
• ASIN: 0262730065
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #446,693 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This book is worth it., December 9, 2002

By 

Frank Bierbrauer (Cardiff, Wales, UK) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf (Paperback)

This was the first time I had read a book about linguistics. For some time I had heard about Benjamin Lee Whorf and his seminal work on American Indian languages. This is his most famous book, a book of some of his papers during the 30's and 40's.

Unfortunately, given my lack of linguistic knowledge I did not understand much of the terminology throughout his more academic papers such as "Some Verbal Categories of Hopi" or "Gestalt Technique of Stem Composition in Shawnee". Nevertheless there is plenty to read which discusses languages without too much academic terminology, although there is always some. His most interesting reads are the more general ones such as "Language, Mind and Reality" or "Language and Logic".

Whorf makes the fascinating assertion, new for his time, that the language we speak, to some degree at least, forces us to orient our view of the world in a certain direction, for example the noun based structure of Indo-European languages forces it into considering the world as made up of interacting fixed parts whereas Hopi doesn't even have a tense system and doesn't consider the past or the future and sees events as either manifest or unmanifest. A completely different way of viewing the world and yet possessing its own internal logic and ability to express whatever is necessary. This is something Whorf stresses throughout and the so-called `primitive' languages of for example, the native Americans, is far from this western perspective. In fact Hopi stands out as being a language ideally suited to the new physics.

Whorf really lives in two worlds regarding his linguistic studies 1. the fascinating metaphysical world of language constructions throughout the world, i.e. the world view generated by these languages and 2. the strict linguistic approach to languages with its own very formal and structured method to analyse languages, see for example the formulaic approach for one-syllable English words in the paper entitled "Linguistics as an Exact Science".

This book is worth it as no doubt the one by Sapir as well.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Structure of the Language We Use, October 15, 2001

By 

Bruce I. Kodish (Pasadena, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf (Paperback)

Whorf (1899-1941), trained as a chemical engineer, worked as a fire prevention consultant and did original work in linguistic anthropology. He remains best know for advocating that the structure of language not only reflects but influences our world view and behavior. "We dissect nature along lines laid down by our native languages. The categories and types that we isolate from the world of phenomena we do not find there because they stare every observer in the face; on the contrary, the world is presented in a kaleidoscopic flux of impressions which has to be organized by our minds--and this means largely by the linguistic systems in our minds. We cut nature up, organize it into concepts, and ascribe significances as we do, largely because we are parties to an agreement to organize it this way--an agreement that holds throughout our speech community and is codified in the patterns of our language" (213). This has been called "the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis," (acknowledging Whorf's mentor, linguistic anthropologist Edward Sapir) although it seems sufficiently general for many hypotheses to be derived from it. Alfred Korzybski independently developed similar notions, writing,"...we read unconsciously into the world the structure of the language we use" (Science and Sanity 60). Students of Korzybski's General Semantics have a particular concern for the practical implications and applications of such views. Read This Book!

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Whorf is real linguistics, April 19, 2006

By 

Alexander D. King "Anthropological Linguist" (Aberdeen, Scotland) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf (Paperback)

The reviewer claiming that Whorf is out of favor in the field of linguistics has a skewed idea of the disipline. Plenty of first-class linguists, including John Lucy, Stephen Levinson, Eve Danziger, Michael Silverstein, Penny Lee, John Gumperz and others take direct inspiration in their cutting-edge research from Whorf.

It is important to understand that the term "Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis" is a misnomer, a misreading that developed in the positivistic 50s after Whorf was dead. He was too smart to refer to his "Principal of Linguistic Relativity" (his term) as a 'hypothesis'. It's closer to an axiom, not an empirically testable hypothesis. This book is not for beginners, but read it carefully and you will gain much insight into the connections between language and thought. If you want a discussion of language for total beginners, Edward Sapir's book _Language_, first published in 1921 has been in continuous print for good reason--it's still excellent and relevant.