Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf

As of Summer, 2008, there are new Benjamin Lee Whorf materials available, to include articles on linguistics and an entire novel written during the trial of John T. Snopes. Also available on this CD-ROM are articles and book-length works about Whorf. See THE BENJAMIN LEE WHORF LEGACY CD-ROM, Ed. Peter C. Rollins. It is fully described at www.petercrollins.com

I used this book in research back in the 60's, while trying to create a theory of learning based on game theory, linguistic analysis and linguistic relativism. Long past my senior thesis days, Whorf's work still intrigues me, especially now that physics has revealed new levels of reality. Back in the 60's, I was just beginning to understand that Wittgenstein was essentially a metaphysician, and that his 'linguistic analysis' was breaking down our conventional view of the world, opening up new approaches to thinking about the nature of reality, Time, Memory, and Meaning. Whorf's writing on the cultural relativism of language and thought was instrumental in opening my awareness to the possibilities of meta-linguistics. Far from being out of favor as one reviewer has stated, Satir-Whorf is the language of today's science and knowledge, and describes the gradual change in how we perceive the world.

The reviewer claiming that Whorf is out of favor in the field of linguistics has a skewed idea of the disipline. Plenty of first-class linguists, including John Lucy, Stephen Levinson, Eve Danziger, Michael Silverstein, Penny Lee, John Gumperz and others take direct inspiration in their cutting-edge research from Whorf. It is important to understand that the term "Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis" is a misnomer, a misreading that developed in the positivistic 50s after Whorf was dead. He was too smart to refer to his "Principal of Linguistic Relativity" (his term) as a 'hypothesis'. It's closer to an axiom, not an empirically testable hypothesis. This book is not for beginners, but read it carefully and you will gain much insight into the connections between language and thought. If you want a discussion of language for total beginners, Edward Sapir's book _Language_, first published in 1921 has been in continuous print for good reason--it's still excellent and relevant.

This book was required reading when I was in college, and it made such an impression on me that 50 years later I sought it out, and re-read it. Anyone interested in communication, and the impact language has on society ( or how society impacts language!) will find the examples of words used (and not used)in various cultures fascinating.

Whorf (1899-1941), trained as a chemical engineer, worked as a fire prevention consultant and did original work in linguistic anthropology. He remains best know for advocating that the structure of language not only reflects but influences our world view and behavior. "We dissect nature along lines laid down by our native languages. The categories and types that we isolate from the world of phenomena we do not find there because they stare every observer in the face; on the contrary, the world is presented in a kaleidoscopic flux of impressions which has to be organized by our minds--and this means largely by the linguistic systems in our minds. We cut nature up, organize it into concepts, and ascribe significances as we do, largely because we are parties to an agreement to organize it this way--an agreement that holds throughout our speech community and is codified in the patterns of our language" (213). This has been called "the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis," (acknowledging Whorf's mentor, linguistic anthropologist Edward Sapir) although it seems sufficiently general for many hypotheses to be derived from it. Alfred Korzybski independently developed similar notions, writing,"...we read unconsciously into the world the structure of the language we use" (Science and Sanity 60). Students of Korzybski's General Semantics have a particular concern for the practical implications and applications of such views. Read This Book!