語言、思想與文化：語言學、大腦與社會的交叉點

This class will cover what many linguists call the linguistic relativity hypothesis, or the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. Benjamin Lee Whorf asked which was first: language patterns or cultural norms. After spending some time philosophizing on what this means, we will explore the 100+ years of research in linguistics and anthropology on the topic. Then we will turn to some research that has attempted to test linguistic relativity, including linguistic structure research, color perception research, the spatial domain, the temporal domain, and the way we use language metaphorically.

It helps if students have taken a linguistics course with me (or with another instructor or in another context) before, but it's not absolutely necessary. I will occasionally make reference to linguistic vocabulary, especially within semantics and syntax. I will make every effort to meet the student where they are in developing their ideas.

Week 1
Lesson 1: An introduction to language, thought, and culture
Lesson 2: More than a century of "linguistic relativity"

We spend the first week with survey and context. We define "language" and "cognition" and "culture" and "linguistic relativity." We ask what our mental lives would be like without language, how our thought patterns might differ, and whether we perceive the world differently depending on the languages we speak. We are introduced to three important people who also pondered these questions: Franz Boas, Edward Sapir, and Benjamin Lee Whorf and learn the proposition in the famous Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. 

Week 2
Lesson 3: The effects of language (in general) on thought
Lesson 4: The effects of linguistic structures on thought

In Week 2, we begin to look at how we can investigate the effects of language on cognition. We divide the focus of such experimental research into two categories: general language effects, and linguistic structures effects. We look at children who have not yet learned a language, as well as at deaf children of hearing parents who do not learn sign language. Then we move to linguistic structures-- what parts of language could potentially influence thought the most? What does it mean if you have a word for something or don't have a word for something? What about semantic domains (groupings of words connected through some core meaning in common)? What about grammatical categories like verb tenses or pronouns?

Week 3
Lesson 5: Color terms and color perception
Lesson 6: Language and our concept of space

Week 3 is an extension of the previous lesson: the effects of linguistic structures on thought. We will take a closer look at specific semantic domains and grammatical structures including color terms, frames of reference and directionality. 

Week 4
Lesson 7: Language and our concept of time
Lesson 8: Our use of language and its relationship to thought; conclusion

Week 4 wraps up with one more linguistic structure worthy of attention: how we encode time into grammar. We will examine how several languages deal with time and how the conceptual framework is reflected in the language. Why do we use spatial metaphors for talking about time? Is this universal across all languages? Finally, we summarize and conclude by thinking about habitual patterns of language use. For example, does literacy (reading and writing) affect our cognition? What about metaphors that are part of everyday language use? At the end, the student evaluates their position on linguistic relativity proposing an answer to the chicken and egg question of language, thought, and culture's mutual influence.