The Sapir-Whorf theory, named after the American linguists Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf, is a mould theory of language. It can be broken down to two assumptions---linguistic determinism and linguistic relativism.
The linguistic determinism refers to the idea that language we use to some extent determines the way we view and think about the world around us. This concept has generally been divided into two groups—strong determinism and weak determinism. The strong determinismmeans language determines thought and the weak determinism holds that language merely affects thought. And the linguistic relativity claims language which differing radically in their vocabulary and structureexpresses different cultural meanings. It held that different languages affect people thinking in different ways respectively. In a word, different languages means different thought and different culture.
In my opinion, the strong determinism overemphasizesthat language shape the way one thinks but ignores the impact that culture have on language. Nevertheless, weak determinismin some degree explains the relationship between language and thought. To put it simply, language do not determine thought but influence thought. Firstly, the language system that have developed for a long time and contains a lot of information of culture, rather than the primitive language, can influence
thought. Plenty of factors, including the objective natural and social environment, helps to shape human beings’ thought, but language do not play a conclusive role. Secondly, language is not the only way to produce and exchange ideas, but we acknowledge that the advanced way to exchange idea relies on language. For example, babies’ intelligence developed before they could speak. And two people may glare at each other and say nothing, but they just understand each other. The application of body language can also prove this. Thirdly, language places some limitations on how a person can express his or her thoughts. For instance, one went to a store last night.He will say “I went to the store.” While in Indonesian, one cannot say “I went to the store.” Instead, one says “I go to the store” whether the action occurs in the past or at present.
Culture can also influence language.On the one hand, Culture can expand the capacity of language. For example, in the ancient time, there areno words like democracy and science in China. Only after the New Culture Movement these words are generalized in the whole country. And in recent years, there are a lot of new words brought by Internet Culture like “diaosi”---meaning someone short, poor and ugly. And a lot of words and phrases are the totally new meanings because of the widely use in the Internet, for example, “buy some sauce”----now meaning it is none of someone’s business. On the other hand, culture
can abolish some language. With the promotion of simplified Chinese character, the traditional character is hardly used in the mainland of China. And with the promotion of vernacular Chinese, especially after the New Culture Movement, the ancient Chinese is rarely seen in our daily life. Comparing today’s language with the ancient language, not only Chinese but a lot of other languages are just different. But we have to point out that Culture is obviously not the only factor even not the decisive factor but play a significant role.
The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, suffering some drawbacks though, caught people’s attention to the relationship between language and culture. Language is the carrier and product of thought and culture. On the one hand, it promotes the development of culture. On the other hand, it also limit thought. And when language cannot satisfy the requirement of thought, language will be updated.Now we can confidently draw the conclusion that language, culture and thought are intertwined and interacted.
The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
