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TheoryandPracticeofSecondLanguageAcquisition
vol.1(1)2015,pp.7-26
JolantaLatkowska
UniversityofSilesia
HowRelevantistheSapir-WhorfHypothesis
toContemporaryPsycholinguisticResearch?
Abstract:Thepaperraisesthequestionofwhetherthelinguisticrelativityproposal,also
knownastheSapir-WhorfHypothesis,shouldbeusedasaframeofreferenceformodernre-
searchintotherelationshipoflanguagetocognition.Thequestionisdiscussedinthecontextof
Whorf’s(1956)writings,withemphasisonfactorsthatarecrucialtotheproposal,i.e.language,
thought,andbehavior.Thesecondissueaddressedbythepaperiswhetherlinguisticcategories
provideanaccuratewindowoncognition,aswassuggestedbyWhorfandinsomeofthemore
recentdebates.Theanalysistakestheformofacorrelationalstudywhichexaminesthecat-
egorizationcriteriaappliedinteststhatrequirelanguage-basedandlanguage-neutraljudgments.
Keywords:linguisticrelativity,Sapir-WhorfHypothesis,cognition,language,correlational
study
Introduction
Tothepsycholinguistandsecondlanguageacquisitionresearcher,theSapir-
WhorfHypothesis,alsoknownasthelinguisticrelativityprinciple,indicatesthe
possibilityofacausalrelationshipbetweenlanguageandthought.Originally,the
relationshipwasassumedtobedeterministic,withlanguageactingasamould
ofcognition.Accordingly,thecategoriesofthenativelanguagewereattributed
withformativepowerswhichdeterminedtheperceptionandapprehensionof
extra-linguisticreality(Carroll,1956).Becauseofalackofunequivocalempiri-
calevidenceandabarrageofcriticismonpurelytheoreticalgrounds(Kramsch,
2004),this4strong’deterministicversionofthehypothesiswasrejectedas
untenable.The4weak’relativistichypothesisisgenerallyaccepted,however,
sinceitresonateswithapopularperceptionoflanguageasashapingbutnot
restrictiveforce(Pederson,2007).Also,theweakhypothesisreceivedsupport
