Psychology 3140F/G Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: Benjamin Lee Whorf, Edward Sapir, Mass Noun

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 3140F/G
• Professor: Debra Jared

Document Summary

Linguistic relativity was equated by some with linguistic determinism (sapir-whorf: this view is controversial and easy to disprove. It believes that our mother tongue constrains our minds and prevents us from being able to think certain thoughts. The current perspective looks at certain properties of a given language or discourse have consequences for pattern of thought about reality: language embodies an interpretation of reality, language can influence thought about that reality. Language influences our minds, not because of what it allows us to think, but because of what it habitually forces us to think about. I had dinner with a friend: english gender doesn"t need to be specified, french or german must be specified. Lucy: count nouns and mass nouns in english and french: classifier (nouns that function like mass nouns, refer to substances, hypothesis. Noun-class languages draw attention to the discreteness of entities greater sensitivity to shape.