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JolantaLatkowska
thenowclassicexampleofgasolinedrumswhich,whenfull,requirehandling
withcautionandcare.Thiscautionisabandonedaroundemptygasolinedrums
becausethewordemptysuggestsalackofdanger.Thesadtruthisthatempty
drumsarepotentiallyevenmoredangerousbecausetheycontainexplosiveva-
por(Whorf,1956,p.135).Theprinciplebehindthisdependencyisasfollows:
“peopleactaboutsituationsinwayswhicharelikethewaystheytalkabout
them”(Whorf,1956,p.148).
TheexamplemakesclearthatWhorfdidnotdistinguishpreciselybetween
verbalandnon-verbalbehavior.Nordidhetrytoinfercognitivepatternsfrom
theobservedbehavior.Itseemshewashappytoacceptthatactivitiesthat
werenotexplicitlylinguisticwerenon-linguisticbydefaultandthatpatternsof
behaviorreflectedpatternsofthought.Hiscontemporaries,includinghispupil
andfriendJohnB.Carroll,adoptedamoreprincipledapproach,however,and
arguedforastrictseparationoflinguisticandnon-linguisticprocesses.This
protectedlinguisticrelativityfrombecomingcircularandtautological,asex-
plainedbyCasasanto:
Inferringcognitivedifferencessolelyfromlinguisticdifferencesishopeless-
lycircular.Patternsinlanguagecanserveasasourceofhypothesesabout
cognitivedifferencesbetweenmembersofdifferentlanguagecommunities,
butsomesortofextra-linguisticdataareneededtotestthesehypotheses:
Otherwise,theonlyevidencethatpeoplewhotalkdifferentlyalsothink
differentlyisthattheytalkdifferently!(2008,p.67)
Italsosolvedtheproblemofalinguisticbiasindataanalysisasresearch-
erswereabletoassesscognitivephenomenainalanguage-neutralway,i.e.
withoutprivilegingavisionofrealityinvokedbythelanguageoftheanalysis,
orindeed,theresearcher’snativelanguage.ThiswasaproblemWhorfwas
intenselyawareof.
Language.Aseconddimensionofthelinguisticrelativityprinciplerepre-
sentsthenotionthatlanguagesarerelativeandvaryinhowtheyconceptualize
andrepresentextra-linguisticreality.InthewordsofWhorf:“eachlanguage
performs[…]artificialchoppingupofthecontinuousspreadandflowofexist-
enceinadifferentway”(1956,p.253)and
segmentationofnatureisanaspectofgrammar[…].Languagesdiffernot
onlyinhowtheybuildtheirsentencesbutalsoinhowtheybreakdown
naturetosecuretheelementstoputinthosesentences(1956,p.240).
Onthelinguisticlevel,theresultofthesegmentationprocessisalargescale
pattern-systemofgrammaticalcategoriessuchasnouns,verbs,number,gender,
