Comment on a linguist Benjamin Lee Whorf

Benjamin Lee Whorf was an American linguist and a fire-prevention engineer. And Whorf advocated a theory all his career that the different structures among languages determined how people view and conceptualize the world，which is known as “Sapir–Whorf hypothesis". After the research of him and his mentor Edward Sapir，Whorf gave it another name-linguistic relativity，because he regarded this principle as similar as that of Einstein's principle of physical relativity.

In the 1960s，Whorfs views were not in the favor of the current scholars，and they were fiercely criticized by scholars. They claimed that language structures could only reflect the universality of cognition rather than cultural differences. In the late period of 20^thcentury，the studies of his ideas was in revival. New generation of scholars started to delve into his works，arguing that previous critiques had only engaged superficially with Whorf's actual ideas，or had attributed to him ideas he had never expressed.

For the very long time，it is acknowledged that language，culture and cognition are the three main factors which are interrelated and cannot be separated. Because of the complex connections among them and different research perspectives，methods and theoretical background，it has formed a great range of research results. At first，Sapir delved into the relations between language and cognition and did several research. Then his student，Wolf，conducted a richer and more in-depth study，and compiled a such hypothesis- Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis，which is his significant ideas of his study.

However，this hypothesis has two levels of meanings. On one hand，it claims that language determines cognition which is called linguistic determinism. It demonstrates that language determines ways of thinking，beliefs and attitude，different languages have different ways of thinking. To some degree，it shows that language plays a key role in the process of shaping ways of thinking. On the other hand，language exerts great influence in the expression of thoughts，hence，linguistic relativism. It stresses the idea that languages are reflections of ways of thinking，beliefs and attitude. Language does not determine thinking but it does have a great effect in cognition，action and the different levels of thinking.

As far as I am concerned，Firstly，language cannot determine the value of world. In fact，linguistic determinism to some degree does have influence on the complexity of thinking，however，it cannot determine ways of thinking or even the value of world. It is universal that people speaking different languages can also form certain one value or attitude. Such as，some moral standard or philosophy ideas. Secondly，languages cannot restrict the way how people regard this objective world. Obviously，Sapir–Whorf hypothesis relies mainly on the different vocabulary system and different grammatical structure. Thirdly，language cannot determine cultural values and ideology. Language serves as a medium for the expression of thoughts，it conveys culture and thinking which are important parts of language.

However，as much attack on the concept of linguistic determinism，the linguistic relativism is much easier for scholar to accept，for it explain the relation between language and thoughts. In this concept，language serves both as the carrier and reflection of culture. And at the same time，the differences of culture are inevitably demonstrated by various levels of languages. Through this hypothesis，we can realize that the existence of different individuals，and it can also reflect the subtle difference among them.

References：

[1]  胡壯麟.语言学教程[M].北京：北京大学出版社，2001.

[2]  Peter Trudgill. Sociolinguistics：An Introduction to Language and Society. England：Penguin Books Ltd，1974

作者简介：杨瑞，1995年10月出生，女，汉族，四川成都，硕士研究生，研究方向：跨文化交际。

（作者单位：西南财经大学）