The Whorf Theory Complex

A critical reconstruction

Penny Lee | The University of Western Australia

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At last — a comprehensive account of the ideas of Benjamin Lee Whorf which not only explains the nature and logic of the linguistic relativity principle but also situates it within a larger ‘theory complex’ delineated in fascinating detail. Whorf’s almost unknown unpublished writings (as well as his published papers) are drawn on to show how twelve elements of theory interweave in a sophisticated account of relations between language, mind, and experience. The role of language in cognition is revealed as a central concern, some of his insights having interesting affinity with modern connectionism. Whorf’s gestaltic ‘isolates’ of experience and meaning, crucial to understanding his reasoning about linguistic relativity, are explained. A little known report written for the Yale anthropology department is used extensively and published for the first time as an appendix. With the Whorf centenary in 1997, this book provides a timely challenge to those who take pleasure in debunking his ideas without bothering to explore their subtlety or even reading them in their original form.

[Studies in the History of the Language Sciences, 81] 1996. x, 324 pp.

Publishing status: Available
Published online on 28 June 2011

https://doi.org/10.1075/sihols.81

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments | p. vii

Preface | p. xi

Chapter 1. Introduction and Overview

1.1 The Early Work: 1924–1930
1.2 1931–1941: The Final Years
1.3 Misread, Unread, and Superficially Treated
1.4 The Theory Complex: An Overview
1.5 Elements of the Complex Summarized

Chapter 2. Linguistic Thinking: Points, Pattern, Linkage, and Rapport

2.1 Patternment
2.2 Points in the Pattern
2.3 Emergent from a Field of Causes
2.4 Linguistic Thinking
2.5. Form and Substance, Process and Content: Cutting through the Dichotomies to Linguistic Thinking

Chapter 3. The Logic and Development of the Linguistic Relativity Principle

3.1 The Linguistic Relativity Principle
3.2 Raw Experience
3.3 Isolates of Experience: the Nonlinguistic Configuration of Experience
3.4 A Canon of Reference, the Same for all Observers
3.5 The Biological Segmentation of Reality
3.6 Different Essentials from the Same Situation
3.7 The Yale Report and Configurative Linguistics
3.8 An Analysis of Hopi Stems: Gestalt Theory in the Service of Linguistics
3.9 Overview of the Yale Report

Chapter 4. Of Covert Categories, Cryptotypes, and the Internalized Linguistic System

4.1 A Whorfian Psycholinguistics
4.2 Marking and Grammatical Classes
4.3 Terminological Anomalies
4.4 Grammatical Meaning and The Problem of Levels in Linguistic Description
4.5 The Data of Utterances

Chapter 5. Abstractive Processes and the Question of Universals

5.1 Abstractive Processes in Cognition
5.2 Experiential, Conceptual, and Linguistic Universals

Chapter 6. Metalinguistics: The Intercalihration of Agreement through Language Awareness

6.1 Introductory Comments
6.2 Three Kinds of Agreement
6.3 Metalinguistics
6.4 Language Awareness as an Augmentative Function in Cognition
6.5 Different Order Systems, Different Logics, and the Progress of Science

Appendix: “The Yale Report” | p. 251

Index of Names | p. 301

Index of Subjects | p. 304

“[A]n informative contribution to the history of linguistics, and also to current linguistics, since the better understanding of Whorf’s writings which it provides sheds light, as Lee points out, on many areas of research, both current and potential. [...] Lee is keen to point out that Whorf‘s notions of patternment and entrenchment have their echoes in more recent thinking, in particular connectionist models of cognition: this is an intriguing parallel, which one may hope will be explored in greater detail in future. [...] Though the Whorfian hypothesis will presumably continue to be a source of controversy, this volume brings us the most detailed and instructive survey of Whorf’s thinking to date.”

Anthony Parry-Jones, Oxford, in Journal of Indo-European Studies,25 (3/4) 1997

“[...] a valuable addition to the extant on Whorf, and a necessay corrective to pervasive misconstruals of his ideas. An essential read for all scholars interested in the topic – especially cognitivists.”

Verena Haser, University of Freiburg, Germany, in Cognitive Linguistics 13.2, 2002

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Subjects

Linguistics

History of linguistics

Cognition and language

Anthropological Linguistics

Main BIC Subject

CF: Linguistics

Main BISAC Subject

LAN009000: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General

ONIX Metadata

ONIX 2.1

ONIX 3.0

U.S. Library of Congress Control Number: 96021119 | Marc record