Whorf's definition: linguistic relativity as observer-relative

In this interview, we talk to Penny Lee about her research into Whorf and linguistic relativity.

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Photo by Mike Clarke.

Note: On reviewing the recording, Penny Lee noticed a slip of the tongue in her reference to a new Afterword in the 2012 edition of Whorf’s Language, Thought and Reality. This edition, in fact, features a new Foreword by Stephen C. Levinson. 

References for Episode 60

Alford, Danny K. (Moonhawk). 1981. ‘Is Whorf’s relativity Einstein’s relativity?’. Proceedings of the Berkeley Linguistics Society 7.13-26.

Bohm, David. 1980. Wholeness and the Implicate Order. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. 

Capra, Fritjof. 1975. The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism, Bungay, Suffolk: Fontana/Collins.

Carroll, John B. 1953. The Study of Language: A Survey of Linguistics and Related Disciplines in America. Cambridge. Harvard University Press.

Carroll, John B. and Casagrande, Joseph B. 1958. ”The function of language classifications in behavior”. In E. E. Macoby et al. (eds), Readings in Social Psychology. New York: Hold, Rinehart and Winston, 18-31.

Chase, Stuart. 1938. The Tyranny of Words. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co.

Evans, Nicholas. 2010. Dying Words: Endangered Languages and What They Have To Tell Us. Wiley-Blackwell.

Harrison, K. David. 2007. When Languages Die: The Extinction of the World’s Languages and the Erosion of Human Knowledge. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Hoijer, Harry. (Ed.) 1954. Language in Culture: Conference on the interrelations of lan­guage and other aspects of culture. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.

Leavitt, John. 2011. Linguistic Relativities: Language Diversity and Modern Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Lee, Penny. 1996. The Whorf Theory Complex: A Critical Reconstruction. Studies in the History of the Language Sciences. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Lee, Penny. When is ‘Linguistic Relativity’ Whorf’s Linguistic Relativity? In Pütz, Martin & Marjolijn Verspoor (eds) Explorations in Linguistic Relativity. Amsterdam Studies in the History of the Language Sciences, Series IV Current Issues in Linguistic Theory Vol. 199. John Benjamins: Amsterdam & Philadelphia. (45-68). 

Lucy, John A. 1992a. Language Diversity and Thought: A Reformulation of the Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Lucy, John A. 1992b. Language Diversity and Thought: A reformulation of the lin­guistic relativity hypothesis. (Studies in the social and cultural foundations of language 12). Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.

Lucy, John A and Gaskins Suzanne. 2001. Grammatical Categories and the Development of Classification Preferences: A Comparative Approach. In: Bowerman, Melissa and Levinson Stephen. (Eds.) Language Acquisition and Conceptual Development. Language Culture and Cognition. Cambridge University Press (257-283).

Sapir, Edward. 1921. Language: An Introduction to the Study of Speech. Harcourt Brace and World: New York.

Sapir, Edward. 1949 Selected Writings of Edward Sapir in Language, Culture and Personality. (Ed.) by David G. Mandelbaum. Berkeley: University of California.

Slobin, Dan. 1996. ‘From “Thought and Language” to “Thinking for Speaking”. In Gumperz, John and Levinson, Stephen C. Rethinking Linguistic Relativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (70-96).

Whorf, Benjamin Lee. 1936. ’The Punctual and Segmentative Aspects of Verbs in Hopi’. Reprinted in Language, Thought and Reality. (65-71).

Whorf, Benjamin Lee. 1979. Benjamin Lee Whorf Papers. Manuscripts and Archives, Yale Univ. Library. 

Whorf, Benjamin Lee. 2012 [2nd Edition]. Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf. Ed. by John B. Carroll, Stephen C. Levinson and Penny Lee. Cambridge Ma.: MIT Press. [LTR]