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From: hullp@cogsci.berkeley.edu
Newsgroups: sci.lang,comp.cog-eng,sci.psychology,sci.philosophy.tech
Subject: Re: Computer Languages and the Sapir/Whorf hypothesis
Keywords: computer languages, Sapir/Whorf hypothesis, linguistics
Message-ID: <38324@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: 22 Aug 90 03:45:31 GMT
References: <5137@munnari.oz.au> <1445@anaxagoras.ils.nwu.edu> <2674@vela.acs.oakland.edu>
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In article <2674@vela.acs.oakland.edu> rjohnson@vela.acs.oakland.edu (R o d Johnson) writes:
>I, and I think many other linguists (though
>not all), have a gut feeling that somewhere, somehow, deep down,
>there's a kernel of truth in the idea, but no attempt to frame it as
>an empirical hypothesis has, to my knowledge, really led anywhere.
Actually, several studies have indeed led somewhere.  Casagrande's
1950's studies demonstrated a so-called Whorfian effect on children's
perception of shape.  The comparison was between Navaho speakers
(whose language mandates the marking of shape with inflections) and
English speakers.  There have been a few others (not many, admittedly)
that have demonstrated similar effects.  The problem is that most of
the tests of the hypothesis have been tests of color perception and
categorization.  Color perception is strongly rooted in physiology
and is thus uniform across cultures to a large degree.  Any language
effects would have to be in a domain for which there is less evidence
for a physical basis.

I've just finished a literature review of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
(part of my dissertation on personality in bilinguals).  I'd be happy
to e-mail a copy of this chapter to anybody who's interested.

Philip V. Hull.



>
>
>-- 
>Rod Johnson  *  rjohnson@vela.acs.oakland.edu  *  (313) 650 2315



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