1/28/2004   slide 7
The Influence of Sapir and Whorf
•Sapir: “The fact of the matter is that the "real world" is to a large extent unconsciously built up on the language habits of the group.”
•Whorf: “…the world is presented in a kaleidoscopic flux of impressions which has to be organized by our minds — and this means largely by the linguistic systems in our minds.” Whorf’s Language, Thought and Reality, 1964 pp. 212–214
•“Sapir-Whorf” hypothesis: language affects (perhaps determines) the way we see/understand the world around us.
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The idea of thought being strongly influenced by (if not completely determined by) language is associated with Linguist and  Anthropologist Edward Sapir and his student Benjamin Lee Whorf. The “Sapir-Whorf” hypothesis is that language affects the way we see/understand the world around us. (though not clear how extremely they wanted this to be interpreted)
http://venus.va.com.au/suggestion/sapir.html

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Linguistic Relativism: "We dissect nature along lines laid down by our native languages. The categories and types that we isolate from the world of phenomena we do not find there because they stare every observer in the face; on the contrary, the world is presented in a kaleidoscopic flux of impressions which has to be organized by our minds — and this means largely by the linguistic systems in our minds. We cut nature up, organize it into concepts, and ascribe significances as we do, largely because we are parties to an agreement to organize it in this way — an agreement that holds throughout our speech community and is codified in the patterns of our language... all observers are not led by the same physical evidence to the same picture of the universe, unless their linguistic backgrounds are similar, or can in some way be calibrated" (Whorf’s Language, Thought and Reality, 1964 pp. 212–214).