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JolantaLatkowska
werecloselyintegrated.Itismorethanlikelythatthisanthropologicalslantin
Whorf’sreasoningpreventedhimfromusingquantifiableresearchparadigms.
Finally,asalinguistandanthropologist,Whorfexpressedconcernabout
whatLucy(2011,p.46)called“unwittinglingua-centrism”oflinguisticevalu-
ationanddescription.Thisisatendencytoanalyzelanguagesintermsofcat-
egoriesrootedintheresearcher’sownlanguage.Althoughunabletoeliminate
thebiasofusingEnglishasatoolofanalysisinhisownresearch,Whorfmade
hisviewsregardingthisissueclear:
ButtorestrictthinkingtothepatternsmerelyofEnglish[…]istolose
apowerofthoughtwhich,oncelost,canneverberegained.[…]Ibelieve
thatthosewhoenvisionafutureworldspeakingonlyonelanguage,whether
English,German,Russian,oranyother,holdamisguidedidealandwould
dotheevolutionofthehumanmindthegreatestdisservice.(1956,p.244)
Bythesametoken,hewasveryconsciousofthelimitationsoflinguistic
metalanguagewhich,inhisopinion,wasuselessinanyotherthanastrictly
grammaticalsense(Whorf&Trager,1996).
Whorf’scontributiontolinguisticsexceedsbyfarthescopeofthispaper,
whichhaspresentedhispositiononlanguageinsofarasitrelatestolinguistic
relativity.AmongWhorf’smostnotableendeavorsinotherareaswereattempts
todecipherMayaandAztecwriting,andananalysisoftheHopilanguage,
aswellasnumeroustheoreticalarticlesonphonotactics,thecryptotype,and
languagetypology.Althoughsomeofthenotionstheyadvancedwereeither
modifiedorindeeddisprovedbylaterresearch,itshouldbeborneinmind
thatWhorfwasdeprivedoftheopportunitytodevelopandperfecthiswork
becausehediedofcancerattheageof44.Hisdeathandthatofhismentors,
FranzBoasandEdwardSapir,whodiedwithinafewyearsofWhorf,dealt
ablowtothelinguisticrelativityproposal,whichwaspresentedtotheworld
inanunfinishedform.
PracticalImplications.Thecurrentreawakeningofinterestinlinguistic
relativityandtheexpansionoftheconcepttoincludebilingualismareliving
proofthattheSapir-WhorfHypothesiscontinuestoinspireresearchersacross
theacademicspectrum.Thisismostevidentintheoutpouringofstudies
andmonographsonthesubjectthathasbeenobservedoverthepasttwo
decadesorso.TheyareatributetoWhorfinparticularforhavingopened
adebatethatrequiredexpertiseandvision,andforhavinghadthecourage
ofhisconvictions.
Itmustbekeptinmind,however,thatSapirandWhorfwerepioneerre-
searcherswithafocusonculturalratherthancognitivephenomena.Consequently,
theparadigmestablishedfortheirworkcouldnotmeettherequirementsofmore
