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HowRelevantistheSapir-WhorfHypothesis…
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controlledstudiesdesignedtodiscoverrelationshipsbetweennarrowlydefined
variables.Ashasbeendemonstratedinthispaper,Whorf’sunderstandingof
thoughtwasoftenintuitive,whilehisanalysisofdatawasdescriptiveandim-
pressionistic,evenphilosophicalattimes.Thisalonediminishestheusefulness
oftheoriginaland/oranyotherbroadlyconceivedversionoflinguisticrelativity
forcurrentresearchwhichisbasedondetailedcognitivemodels.AsPederson
rightlyobserves,nowadays:
thequestion4Doeslanguageinfluencethought?’isbeingreplacedby
abatteryofquestionsaboutwhetheragivenfeatureofaspecificlanguage
influencesparticularcognitiveoperations,whattheexactcognitivemecha-
nismsarewhichgiverisetothisinfluence,andhowwecanmostprecisely
characterizethenatureofthisinfluence.(2007,p.1036)
Inthelightoftheabove,itbecomesapparentthatthedisagreementsoverwhat
constitutesWhorfianeffectsoncognitionthatarecommoninpsycholinguistic
circlescannotbeconclusivelyresolvedbecauseWhorfdidnotprovideenough
informationonthesubject.Infact,hewasonlyaprecursorofwhatlatercame
tobeknownasaresearchtrendbearinghisname.
Personally,IapplaudCook’s(2011,p.12)commentthatthereisaninfu-
riatingtendencyforacademics“todebatenottheactualissuesinvolved,but
theirinterpretationofthewritingsofWhorfandSapir[…],ratherlikethe
exegesisofasacredtext.”Paradoxically,thispaperisnoexception.Still,as
aresearcher,Iwouldmuchratherconcentrateontherealissues.Oneofthem
isdiscussedbelow.
Linguisticand(non?)-linguisticcategorization
intasksusinglinguisticstimuli:Acorrelationalstudy
Objectives.AccordingtoLakoff(1987,p.330),theclassicWhorfianargu-
ment“thatthestructureofalanguagecouldinfluencenonlinguisticbehavior”
shouldbecouchedintermsofthequestionofwhethernamingispartof(non-
linguistic)cognition.Thepresentstudyinvestigatesthisissuebyattemptingto
findouttowhatextentsemanticnamingdistinctionscorrelatewithcategoriza-
tionpatternsintasksthat:
•applynon-linguisticcriteriaofcategorization,e.g.similarityjudgmentsin
afreesortingtask;
•implementcategorizationaccordingtolexico-semanticcriteriawhichdiverge
fromthoselaiddownbythewordsunderstudy.
