First refs to "Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis"

[Ben Zimmer]

Here are the earliest citations given in the online OED:

1954 H. HOIJER Language in Culture I. 93 The central idea of the
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is that language functions, not simply as a device
for reporting experience, but also..as a way of defining experience for its
speakers.
1954 ______ in Mem. Amer. Anthropol. Assoc. LXXIX. 95 Differences..which
reflect a people's habitual and favorite modes of reporting, analyzing, and
categorizing experience, form the essential data of the Sapir-Whorf
hypothesis.
1956 J. B. CARROLL in B. L. Whorf Lang., Thought, & Reality 27 Whorf's
principle of linguistic relativity, or, more strictly, the Sapir-Whorf
hypothesis (since Sapir most certainly shared in the development of the
idea) has..attracted a great deal of attention.

--Ben

At 02:10 PM 12/11/01 -0600, Keith Sawyer wrote:
>I think the best summary of linguistic relativity in Boas, Sapir, and Whorf
>is the Hill and Mannheim article in "Annual Review of Anthropology": 1992,
>vol. 21, 381-406.  They say that the "Sapir-Whorf" hypothesis crystallized
>in the 1950s and they reference several sources documenting the history (p.
>385).
>
>At 10:19 AM 12/11/01 -0800, Richard J Senghas wrote:
> >OK, Linganth folks:
> >
> >At the risk of raising heat, I'm trying to locate the first **explicit**
> >references to the so-called "Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis" as such, and to
> >specific passages by either Sapir or Whorf that have been pointed to as
> >their own formulation and presentation of any such hypothesis, either
> >formally or informally. I've seen so many conflicting accounts that I
> >wanted to get a sense as to whether there is any consensus on this issue
> >among linguistic anthropologists.
> >
> >I know a lot of us refer to this conception as the "linguitic relativity
> >hypothesis" to sidestep this epistemological rathole, but at the moment I'm
> >interested in the historical process of the emergence of this concept as a
> >case in point on how theoretical ideas get labelled and argued, both within
> >and without the academy.