ATS1291 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Franz Boas, Linguistic Relativity, Intercultural Competence
13 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Language and Worldview
"We don't see they things are they are - we see them as we are." (Anais Nin, as cited in Wierzbicka,
2015)
Linguistic relativity (Sapir - Whorf hypothesis)
• Language guides our thoughts
What is worldview?
• The overall perspective/belief from which one sees and interprets the world
• A persons internal mental framework of cognitive understanding about reality and life
meaning
• Character and structure of language expresses speakers culture (Wilhelm von Humbolt, 19th
century)
• Language reflects and psychology of their speakers (Franz Boaz, 1928)
Development of worldview
• New events/experiences
• Socialisation with socialising agents
o Family
o Education
o Mass media/popular culture
o Travel
o Peer groups
o Religions
o Technology etc
Some examples
Xu and Dinh (2013)
• Bungalow
• Noodles
Consistency of worldview?
• New ideas or knowledge, new experiences, new encounters, new people, new era
(globalisation) may challenge our previous worldview
• People constantly negotiate and re-negotiate their worldview
Language and worldview
• In communication, we communicate our worldviews or socio-cultural realities which are not
necessarily shared by our interlocutors.
• Tracing the way individuals explore new paths in describing the world, and speaking about the
way it functions and about their own place in that world.
• Understanding the patterning of a language (unconscious association of words).
Lexis and worldview
• Speeds of horses in motion:
o Walking
o Ambling
o Trotting
o Pacing
o Racking
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