Habitual Thought & Behavior

PHDL309 Sociolinguistics

“The Relation of Habitual Thought and Behavior to Language”-Benjamin Whorf

Jerry Smith

Discussion• Questions / Discussion

will arise from this report / text• I found the text / material

to be quite amorphous, hard to grasp• Your help, together with

this discussion may help clear it up (at least for me)

Change gears!(Signals a change in idea)

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Author: Benjamin Lee Whorf1897 - 1941• Studied Linguistics at Yale• Interested in American Indians• Studied under Edward Sapir• Lecturer in Anthropology• Successful business specialist• Hartford Fire Insurance Company

Edwin Sapir1884 - 1939

• Considered to be one of the most important figures in the early development of the discipline of linguistics• Studied Germanic linguistics at Columbia• Went to California to work with Alfred Kroeber to

document the indigenous languages• Was a professor at the University of Chicago, • Professor of anthropology at Yale until his death

Hopi (American Indians)• Arizona• Known as peaceful Indians• An agricultural people

http://www.legendsofamerica.com/na-hopi.html

SAE (Standard Average European)• European languages• E.g. English, French, German, etc.

The Relation of Habitual Thought and Behavior to Language

• Human beings do not live in the objective world alone… • But are very much at the mercy of the particular

language of that society… (?)• The real world is to a large extent unconsciously

built up on the language habits of the group…

-- Edwin Sapir

Interdisciplinary nature of language• Sapir saw important interconnections between

language, culture, and psychology.• Language has a tendency to arrange data a certain

way• Thus, it influences other activities such as cultural

and personal

Language as affecting behavior• During Whorf’s work at a fire insurance company,

he noticed that sometimes the reasons surrounding fires was connected to the meaning that people placed on a situation which caused the fire

Example: Gasoline Drum Storage Area• Empty vs. full gasoline drums• Empty drums suggest less

hazard• Full drums suggest greater

hazard• The truth of the matter:• Empty gasoline drums are more

hazardous than full drums!

Q: Can anyone think of other examples of how we are limited by our languages / how we behave in relative to our language (paradigms)?• Stone does not burn

• Thus, I can put a stove near stone• The reality: Some stone does burn

• Water does not burn• Therefore, I can throw a match into it• The reality: If water has chemicals, it will burn

• An air conditioner makes the air cold• Hence, if I want to feel cooler, turn it on• The reality: An air conditioner conditions the air

• Sometimes adding humidity, or decreasing it

Two more. . .(My own American limitations) • “Solid Duterte Fighters” • Thus, we are against Pres. Duterte• The reality (as seen in the post):

They are in full support of Pres. Duterte

• “I want that song”• Thus, I want to get / buy /

download it• The reality: She simply likes the

song

Whorf’s Conclusion• The cue to a certain line of behavior is often given by

the analogies of the linguistic formula of the situation• E.g. It’s okay to smoke near the storage area because the

gasoline drums are empty• These are unconsciously built up on the language

habits of the group• “We always assume that the linguistic analysis made

by our group reflects reality better than it does” • Furthermore, we tend to think in our own language to

understand another• Language teaching for example

I really, really, . . . really want to STOP here. . . BUT, there’s more

Headache ahead!

Don’t worry, we’ll speed through this and get to safer

territory in just a few moments

ADVISORY

Whorf’s Investigative Questions• Are our concepts of time, space, and matter

relative to all people?• Or, are they part of a conditioned response resulting

from our language?

• Are there relationships between cultural and behavioral norms• Are there relationships between large-scale

linguistic patterns?• What do you think?

Grammatical patterns as interpretations of experience

SAE• Singular• Plural

Hopi• Some things plural• Some things singular

Plurality and numerationSAE

• Perceptible spatial aggregates • Ten men

• Metaphorical aggregates• Ten days

• Cyclic sequences• One pattern for both• Confuses situations

• Counting on discrete entities is the SAME as counting on imaginary ideas

• Length of time is seen as a row of bottles

• Objectified (or imaginary)• Awareness of time

• Becoming later and later• Patterned on the outer world

Hopi

• NO imaginary plurals• Ordinals used with

singulars• NOT “ten days” BUT “they

stayed until the eleventh day”• Or, “They stayed until after

the tenth day”

• Length of time is NOT seen as length• But, in relation to two

events in terms of lateness

Nouns of physical quantity

SAE

• Individual nouns and mass nouns• Count / Non-count nouns• Flower(s) / milk (some

milk, a glass of milk, etc.)

• Binomial expressions • Splits the reference into a

formless item plus a form

Hopi

• NO class of mass nouns (non-count nouns)• The noun itself implies a

suitable container• NOT “a glass of water”,

not “a pool of water” BUT “a water”• NOT “a peace of meat”

BUT “a meat”

Phases of CyclesSAE

• Summer, winter, September, morning, noon, sunset• Subjects or objects• Objectified terms

• E.g. We say “at sunset” or “in winter” just as we say “at a corner” or “in an orchard”

• Without objectification, it would simply be a subjective experience of real time• The consciousness of

“becoming later and later”

Hopi

• Phase terms (e.g. “summer”, “morning”) are NOT nouns but kinds of adverbs• Do NOT say “it’s a hot

summer” BUT when it is hot, it’s summer• Do NOT say “this summer”

BUT say “summer now” or “summer recently”• NO objectification such as

region, extent, quantity of the subject duration

Temporal forms of verbsSAE

• Three basic tenses• Past, present, future

• Objectification • Enables us to “stand time units in

a row” (past-present-future)

• Sensous• What we are seeing, hearing,

touching – the present• Nonsensuous

• The image-world of memory – the past

• Belief, intuition, and uncertainty• The future

Hopi

• Verbs have NO tenses like SAE• Validity forms

• The speaker, NOT the subject reports the situation (past & present) or that he expects it (future)

• Aspects• Different degrees of duration

• Modes• Relations of later to earlier• Relations of simultaneity

Duration, Intensity, and Tendency

SAE

• Expressed metaphorically• Duration

• Long, short, great, much, quick, slow,…

• Intensity• Large, great, much, heavy,

light, high,…• Tendency

• More, increase, grow, turn, get, approach,…

• “Our views differ widely”, “his view is much different than mine”, “that makes a lot of sense”

Hopi

• Do NOT use space terms when there is no space involved• [No examples given]• Anyone want to try?

Habitual thought(i.e. linguistic patterns; our imaginary space; our thought world)

SAE

• Analyzes reality in terms of “things”, “substances”, or “matter”• Binomial formulas• Expresses existents as a

spatial form plus a spatial formless continuum related to the form (e.g. a bowl of soup)• Nonspatial existents

imaginatively spatialized (e.g. at the last moment)

Hopi

• Analyzes reality in terms of events (i.e. “eventing”)• Objective Events

• Physical experiences in terms of colors, outlines, shapes, movements, … (E.g. ??)

• Subjective Events• Both physical and non-physical• Existents do not become

“later and later” in the same way but sometimes “growing” like plants, others by diffusing and vanishing, others by metamorphoses,… (E.g. ??)

Habitual behavior(People act about situations in ways that are like the ways they talk about them)

SAE Hopi

• Emphasis on preparation• Announcing and getting ready for

events well beforehand• Elaborate precautions to insure

persistence of desired conditions• Stress on good will as the preparer

of right results

• Time is reckoned “by day” or “by night” • Not nouns, but tensors• Not motion (SAE) but “getting

later”• Not to behave about day-cyclicity

as to several men (as SAE tends to do) but as successive visits of the same man

Habitual behaviorSAE

• Tomorrow is another day

Hopi

• Well begun is half done• Preparing behavior (in

terms of their agricultural culture)• Announcing

• Preparing publicly• Outer preparing

• Practice, rehearsing, special food

• Inner preparing• Prayer and meditation

Rosebush analogy• SAE habitual behavior lends itself to a

mental surrogate of the idea of a rosebush• An imaginary rosebush• Not a real rosebush

• Not one we have in mind

• The Hopi do NOT have such an imaginary space• Thinks of an actual rosebush

• He is NOT thinking of an imaginary rosebush, but an actual one he is aware of

• If it is a good thought, about health or growth, then it is good for the plant

• If it is a bad thought, the reverse• Thought power

• The idea of “concentrating” in English is replaced by “holding it in your heart” in Hopi.

• Thought power is the force behind ceremonies, prayer sticks and the prayer pipe.

Some impresses* of linguistic habit in Western Civilization

SAE

• Linguistic binomialism of form plus formless item or “substance”• Form-plus-substance

dichotomy• Metaphoricalness

• “He has a poker face”• Imaginary space

• “I moved up in my company”• Objectified time

• “Late summer”• “Early winter”

Hopi

*Emotional or cognitive impact

Some impresses of linguistic habit in Western Civilization

SAE

• Favorable to historicity and record-keeping• One event ends and

another begins

• Writing has greatly influenced this• Records, diaries,

bookkeeping• Calendars, clocks, wages, • Annals, histories

Hopi

• Unfavorable to• Does NOT record but sees

the present as “preparing”


SAE

• Gestures made by English-speaking people serve to illustrate by a movement in space, not real but spatial references• We are more apt to make

a grasping gesture when speaking of an idea then when speaking of a doorknob

Hopi

• Gesture very little• Their language refers

primarily to non-spatials


SAE

• Sports • “poetry in motion”

• Dancing• motion

Hopi

• Races and games• Endurance and sustained

intensity• Dancing• Symbolic, intensity,

earnestness• Less movement or swing

Historical Implications• Language is a system (of thinking), not an

assemblage of norms• Language represents the mass mind

Historical ImplicationsSAE

• Objective experience is prior to subjective experience• Language is a system of

measurement• Time

• Limited dimensions

• Matter• Substance or stuff joined with

form

• Space• Use of surrogates for nonspatial

relationships such as time, intensity, tendency, and as a void to be filled

Hopi

• The reverse• Hopi word for “heart” is

“think” or “remember”• Language is a system of

preparations or precautions• Time

• Duration is inconceivable in terms of space or motion

• Matter• NO formless extensional items

• Space• NOT connected mentally with

surrogates

Simplified Version (Source 3)• Statement of Whorf’s primary hypotheses:• (1) Are our own concepts of "time," "space," and

"matter" given in substantially the same form by experience to all men, or are they in part conditioned by the structure of particular languages? • (2) Are there traceable affinities between (a) cultural

and behavioral norms and (b) large-scale linguistic patterns?

• Used comparative cases as evidence for (some parts of) the hypotheses (SAE and Hopi).

PHL313: Some Observations about Whorf's "Relation" . (2016). Oswego.edu. Retrieved 1 September 2016, from http://www.oswego.edu/~delancey/313_DIR/313NOTES/Whorf

Simplified Version (Source 3)Hopi vs SAE • Whorf considers and compares features of Hopi

with SAE. • The idea is that Hopi is very different from the relatively

similar European languages. • He hoped to show systematic patterns of difference. • We are at the disadvantage that we don't know Hopi,

and so must assume his account is accurate.


Simplified Version (Source 3)Plurality• SAE applies number to real and imaginary things. • We say, for example, "Ten days" when of course there

are never present at once as a group ten days.• In Hopi, plurals are reserved for things that can form a

present group. • For example, regarding time, you have to say, "On the tenth

day." • Whorf suggest this means that Hopi have a different

sense of time: they see time primarily as "becoming later," instead of like SAE native speakers as a object.


Simplified Version (Source 3)Quantity• SAE has individual and mass nouns. • Hopi LACKS vague mass nouns: things like water

come always in some form (a cup, etc.). • This means they are NOT inclined like SAE speakers

to imagine a difference between matter and form.


Simplified Version (Source 3)Phases and Cycles• We treat cycles just like other objects, with

undistinguished nouns. • Hopi treats phases with constructions like adverbs • We say, "in the morning," as if morning were like a

space; he claims Hopi say something like "while the morning phase is occurring." • The result is that, Whorf claims, the Hopi have no

reason to think of time as a thing.


Simplified Version (Source 3)Temporal forms of Verbs• Our three tenses in SAE leads us to see time "in a

row." • He claims Hopi LACKS tense but has in place a

complex set of relations to the speaker.


Simplified Version (Source 3)Duration• We express duration with metaphors, most of them

spatial• This encourages our objectification of time.

• Hopi LACKS these spatial metaphors for time; again, suggesting they see time as a flow, a getting later, but not as a kind of space-like stuff.


Simplified Version (Source 3)• In terms of "habitual thought," then, Whorf suggest

SAE native speakers build their vocabulary foremost on terms for things, and we objectify time. • Hopi native speakers see time mostly as growth, cyclicity,

and creativity. • This is shown in social relations and relations to the natural

world; as would be, he claims, our conception of time shown in our relations.

• In sum, Whorf thinks that he has shown that our concepts of time and matter are shaped by language: • "Concepts of 'time' and 'matter' are not given in

substantially the same form by experience to all men but depend upon the nature of the language or languages through the use of which they have been developed."


Simplified Version (Source 2)• Put simply, Sapir and Whorf believed that the

language we speak profoundly influences the way we construct our worlds. • Unfortunately, Whorf’s arguments are ambiguous

as to the exact relationship between language and world-view.• While the Sapir-Whorf Relativity Hypothesis

ultimately failed, it did so in interesting and even constructive, ways.

Notes on Whorfian Relativity : Dustin M. Wax. (2016). Dwax.org. Retrieved 1 September 2016, from http://dwax.org/2007/05/29/notes_on_whorfian_relativity/

Simplified Version (Source 1)• The structure of a language affects its speakers'

cognition or world view.• Linguistic determinism: Language entirely

determines the range of cognitive processes. • The hypothesis of linguistic determinism is now

generally agreed to be FALSE

• Linguistic influence: Proposing that language provides constraints in some areas of cognition, but that it is by no means determinative. • Research on weaker forms have produced POSITIVE

EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE for a relationship.

Linguistic relativity. (2016). Wikipedia. Retrieved 1 September 2016, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_relativity

Simplified Version (Source 1)• Whorf's most elaborate argument for linguistic

relativity regarded what he believed to be a fundamental difference in the understanding of time as a conceptual category among the Hopi. • He argued that Hopi does not treat the flow of time as a

sequence of distinct, countable instances, like "three days" or "five years," but rather as a single process.

• Malotki concluded that there was NO evidence that Hopi conceptualize time in the way Whorf suggested.• Ekkehart Malotki is a German-American linguist, known

for his extensive work on the documentation of the Hopi language and culture, specifically for his refutation of the myth that the Hopi have no concept of time.

Linguistic relativity. (2016). Wikipedia. Retrieved 1 September 2016, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_relativity

Simplified Version (Source 2)• However, Whorf found significance in the case of gender

in English • In contrast to other languages such as French and German,

English has NO covert gender markings for nouns. • However, Whorf points out, many English nouns are NOT

gender-neutral• For example, in Romance languages, female names are overtly

marked with an “-elle” or “-ella” affix, as in “Danielle” or “Marguella”. • In English, though, there are no clear differences between

male and female names. • Despite this lack of overt markings, it is still understood that George,

William, and Richard are male, while Jane, Susan, and Betty are female.

• The gender of the named person is determined unconsciously, covertly; it is established through systematic relations within the entire language structure.

Notes on Whorfian Relativity : Dustin M. Wax. (2016). Dwax.org. Retrieved 1 September 2016, from http://dwax.org/2007/05/29/notes_on_whorfian_relativity/

What are the MAIN ideas?• Whorf’s proposition that the structure of a

language affects its speakers' cognition or world view.• Put simply, Sapir and Whorf believed that the

language we speak profoundly influences the way we construct our worlds.• Hypothesis: The nature of a language depends

upon the concepts which it has been developed to express.

Hopefully, you’ve just had an “ohhhh – aaahhh” moment!

One main question from this paper• Does culture shape language or does language

shape culture?• Consider that direct translation between two languages,

even of seemingly basic concepts such as snow or water, is NOT always possible.• Filipino: Gigil• English: No precise word for it, just a description: controlled

emotion• So, why does Filipino language have such a word and the

English language does not??

THE END

WHEW!

Habitual Thought & Behavior

Science

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