Benjamin Lee Whorf

Benjamin Lee Whorf (1897-1941), linguist and American anthropologist, was one of the first linguists to be interested in the Amerindian Langues. He is also the author with Edward Sapir of the Hypothèse of Sapir-Whorf for which he is mainly known.

Benjamin L. Whorf was an atypical linguist, keeping voluntarily away from the university world: he did not teach little and refused all the stations in university which were proposed to him at the end of its life. Its trade of engineer in an insurance company (Hartford Insurance Company) however did not predispose it to be distinguished in the academic spheres. But he always asserted his independence like a pledge of freedom enabling him to develop original ideas, still today polemical objects of sharp.

Linguistic Relativity

The principal center of interests of Whorf as regards linguistics was the study of the Amerindian languages, and mainly those of Central America. He is in particular the author of a work on the language Hopi, but was interested moreover in the language Maya or the language Inuit, and it is of the whole of this research that Principe from linguistic relativity was born its .

On the basis of the fact that one does not find any concept temporal in the Hopi language, Whorf from of deduced that the thought is conditioned by the language which expresses it. This first principle combines another: that following which the language is conditioned by the culture, principle which will be more particularly developed during its collaboration with Sapir. This principle of relativity is radically opposed to the assumption chomskyenne innate character of the language insofar as it stipulates an acquired feature to him.

This principle is also opposed to the whole of the design néo-grammairienne linguistics, which, until Saussure, considered the language like a clean system independent of the social and cultural contingencies.

language is shaped by culture and reflects the individual actions off people daily

Influences

The thought of Whorf was mainly influenced by that of its compatriot Franz Boas, the founder of anthropology. One sees there sometimes also the influence of his education methodist, and his deep mystical engagement (he also knew Hebrew). Its detractors, inter alia, will have reproached him for having written for the scientific not very re-examined " New Age".

Collaboration with Sapir

When in 1931 Benjamin Whorf decides to follow the courses of anthropology of the university of Yale, it works under the direction of Edward Sapir. This last quickly takes conscience of the originality of its thought, and decides to encourage it. They will work together on the linguistic theory of relativity, which will be also called Hypothèse of Sapir-Whorf. During this period, Whorf publishes several articles in great reviews of linguistics like Language .

Benjamin Whorf dies in 1941, leaving his unfinished work. Its impact on contemporary linguistics is considerable, as promptness testifies some to the polemics which surround it.

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