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Benjamin Lee Whorf was an American linguist and fire prevention engineer. Whorf is widely known as an advocate for the idea that differences between the structures of different languages shape how their speakers perceive and conceptualize the world. This principle has frequently been called the "Sapir–Whorf hypothesis", after him and his mentor Edward Sapir, but Whorf called it the principle of linguistic relativity, because he saw the idea as having implications similar to Einstein's principle of physical relativity.

Wharf was born on April 24, 1897 in Winthrop (Massachusetts). He studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, received the specialty of a chemist-technologist. In 1919 he joined the Hartford Fire Insurance Company, where he eventually became deputy director. In addition, although Whorf worked in the company all his life, devoting only free time to scientific studies, he published many works on the problems of linguistics. Many of them were included in the collection of Language, Thinking and Reality (Selected Language, Thought, and Reality, Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf, 1956).

Whorf's interest in the languages ​​of the American Indians was formed in 1931 under the influence of the listened course of Amerindian linguistics, which Edward Sepir, one of the most significant linguists of his time, read at Yale University. Later Whorf studied the Hopi language (the yuto-Aztec branch of the Tano-Aztec languages), and it was on his material that he formulated the foundations of his theory of linguistic relativity, which is often also called the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, paying tribute to the enormous influence that Sapir had on his pupil and a friend.

In its strong form, the theory of linguistic relativity asserts that individuals associate the world with fragments predetermined by the structure of their native language. For example, if for the designation of a number of close objects in one language there are several different words, and another language denotes these objects in one word, then the carrier of the first language should in its consciousness isolate the characteristics distinguishing these objects, whereas the carrier of another language is not obliged to do this. Thus, according to Whorf, in bearers of different languages, the mental images of the same object are not the same. In English there is only one word for snow, there are several in the Eskimo, so from the Eskimo carrier it is necessary to distinguish between what snow is talking about: falling or lying on the ground. Similarly, Whorf proves that grammatical categories, such as time or number, also force speakers to perceive the world in a certain way. In English any verb in personal form must necessarily contain a time indicator: for example, I sang 'I sang (past tense)', I sing 'I sing (present)', I will sing 'I will sing (future time)'. English speakers are also forced to designate temporary differences in each sentence; carriers of other languages ​​may not note these differences, but they will have to indicate, say, visible or invisible the objects mentioned in the conversation.

The theory of linguistic relativity has caused controversy since its inception. Most linguists and psychologists have argued that the speakers of those languages ​​in which no distinctions are made are nevertheless able to do so if necessary, although perhaps not so easily and quickly. Whorf's theory stimulated serious discussions and experiments on the relationship between language and thought, and his pioneering work paved the way for further research in this direction.

Worth died of cancer in Wethersfield (CT) on July 26, 1941.

After his death his manuscripts were curated by his linguist friends who also worked to spread the influence of Whorf's ideas on the relation between language, culture and cognition. Many of his works were published posthumously in the first decades after his death. In the 1960s Whorf's views fell out of favor and he became the subject of harsh criticisms by scholars who considered language structure to primarily reflect cognitive universals rather than cultural differences. Critics argued that Whorf's ideas were untestable and poorly formulated and that they were based on badly analyzed or misunderstood data.

In the late 20th century, interest in Whorf's ideas experienced a resurgence, and a new generation of scholars began reading Whorf's works, arguing that previous critiques had only engaged superficially with Whorf's actual ideas, or had attributed to him ideas he had never expressed. The field of linguistic relativity studies remains an active focus of research in psycholinguistics and linguistic anthropology, and continues to generate debate and controversy between proponents of relativism and proponents of universalism. By comparison, Whorf's other work in linguistics, the development of such concepts as the allophone and the cryptotype, and the formulation of "Whorf's law" in Uto-Aztecan historical linguistics, have met with broad acceptance.

References

Alford, D. K. H. (1978). "Demise of the Whorf hypothesis". Proceedings of the Berkeley Linguistic Society. 4: 485–9.

Alford, D. K. H. (1981). "Is Whorf's Relativity Einstein's Relativity?". Proceedings of the Berkeley Linguistic Society. 4: 485–9.

Bergman, J. (2011). "Benjamin Lee Whorf: An Early Supporter of Creationism". Acts & Facts. 40 (10): 12–14.

Black, Max (1959). "Linguistic Relativity: The Views of Benjamin Lee Whorf". The Philosophical Review. 68 (2): 228–238. doi:10.2307/2182168.

Carroll, John B. (2005). "Whorf, Benjamin Lee". Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science.

Duranti, Alessandro (2003). "Language as Culture in U.S. Anthropology: Three Paradigms". Current Anthropology. 44 (3): 323–347. doi:10.1086/368118.

Malotki, Ekkehart (1983). Werner Winter, ed. "Hopi Time: A Linguistic Analysis of the Temporal Concepts in the Hopi Language". Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs. Berlin, New York, Amsterdam: Mouton Publishers. 20.

Pinker, Steven (2007). "The Stuff of Thought: Language as a window into human nature". Penguin Books.

Ridington, Robin (1987). "Models of the Universe: The Poetic Paradign of Benjamin Lee Whorf". Anthropology and Humanism Quarterly. 12: 16–24. doi:10.1525/ahu.1987.12.1.16.

Silverstein, Michael (1979). "Language structure and linguistic ideology". In R. Cline; W. Hanks; C. Hofbauer, eds. The Elements: A Parasession on Linguistic

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