Sapir-Whorf

[Mark Allen Peterson]

Dear Richard,

I have to weigh in with Bonnie and the others who cite Harry Hoijer.  Some years ago I did a grad paper for Victor Golla entitled "Whatever Happened to the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis?"  In those pre-computer days (remeber those?) I and a series of harassed Library of Congress reference librarians came to the conclusion that Hoijer coined the term and used it as the basis of an all-star linguistics panel, subsequently published as AAA memoir #79. 

I can't find the paper (I suspect it's in storage in the US) but as I recall Hoijer seemed to base the whole "Sapir-Whorf hypothesis" on three quotations from Sapir and Whorf.  Neither Sapir nor Whorf ever stated it in hypothesis form and their own wording is tentative and subject to many interpretations.  I am particularly interested in Whorf's emphasis on links between language categories and habitual (as opposed to conscious strategic) action.  It not only makes clear that Whorf wasn't suggesting a "strong" hypothesis but reminds me both of Bourdieu's habitus and Peirce's writings on habit.

Best,

Mark
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: burciuol 
  To: linganth at cc.rochester.edu 
  Sent: Tuesday, December 11, 2001 10:59 PM
  Subject: Sapir-Whorf


  For one useful starting point, see Language in Culture: Proceedings of a Conference on the Interrelations of Language and Other Aspects of Culture.  Ed, Harry Hoijer.  published by the American Anthropological Association, vol.56, #6, part 2, memoir #79, December 1954.  In the preface (on p.vii), Hoijer lists what he and Robert Redfield saw as the objectives of the conference, starting with this point:
  "1. To define, as clearly as possible, the problems raised by the attempt to interrelate language and other aspects of culture, particularly in reference to the hypothesis suggested in Benjamin L. Whorf's Collected Papers on Metalinguistics, (Washington DC 1952)."

  This conference, with an all-star participant list, was held in Chicago in March 1953, and the papers and discussion published in the above-described volume. 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/linganth/attachments/20011216/82fd3b11/attachment.htm>