Subject: Re: [lojban] Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 11 Jun 2001 18:04:32 EDT

In a message dated 6/11/2001 4:09:47 PM Central Daylight Time, 
[email-masked] writes:

> Where can I find Whorf's writings on the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis? I'm
> interested in reading the original version, and have heard Sapir was
> uninvolved.
> 

The standard collection of Whorf's writings is still Language, Thought and 
Reality, ed.
John B. Carroll, MIT/Wiley, 1956. The two stock follow-ups are Language and 
Culture, ed Harry Hoijer, U Chicago, 1954, and Lnaugae, Thought and Culture 
ed Paul Henle, U Michigan, 1958 (pb 1965). Whorf is not very clear a lot of 
the time; the best article in the collection is probably "The relation of 
habitual thought and behavior to language," though several others are useful, 
as is Carroll's introduction. 
Sapir never formulates the hypothesis explicitly, but it is adumbrated in 
many of his works -- as well as in the works of many predecessors back at 
least to von Humboldt (several pieces in the Sapir collection that I remember 
as Language and Culture, but I don't have a copy of, deal with the themes of 
the hypothesis). Not much has happened in the whole area since the late '50's 
when linguists got all wrapped up in computation.