Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis: Linguistic Determinism

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Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis – Linguistic Determinism Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis is named after two linguists known as Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf. Sapir believed that human beings do not live in the society alone and that language of the society makes huge impact on how one views the world. Whorf believes that nature and our native language mold our thoughts and allow us the ability to talk and communicate. Sapir –Whorf Hypothesis states that there are certain thoughts of an individual in one language that cannot be understood by those who live in another language. The hypothesis also states that based on the way people think is strongly affected by their native language. The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis consists of two associated principles a strong
During the worldview you are able to integrate sense of existence and provides a theoretical framework for generating sustaining and applying knowledge. Both Linguistic Determinism and Linguistic Relativity Linguistic Determinism have many advantages and disadvantages. Linguistic Determinism reinforces certain ideas and pushes them into attention. It also stresses that language does exert great influences on patterns of thinking on culture. One of the disadvantages is that if two different languages if a language is very limited compared to a very complex language then the language with more complex vocabulary should be able to should be able to somewhat understand L2. For example if I say the word Snow in English it means one thing it means snow, but in Eskimo language snow means countless words and is used to describe shape location and form. Being that I am familiar with the word snow I should be able to determine the shape in which an Eskimo language speaker is using the word snow to describe a shape of something. According to Sapir-Whorf hypothesis as an English speaking person I should not be able to distinguish characteristics based off my prior knowledge. I will just use what I am familiar

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