Language and experience
According to Edward Sapir, human beings do not live in the objective world alone, but are very much at the mercy of this medium of expression for their society.
What is language?
Metaphors are everyday mental instruments that shape and direct how we behave during a conversation.
Do metaphors help us reason?
This linguist introduced the principle of linguistic relativity
Who is Edward Sapir?
A linguist who argued that language is a guide to social reality and that the real word is unconsciously built up on the language habits of the group.
Who is Edward Sapir?
Lakoff and Johnson show that when we say "I defeated his point" or "She attacked my idea," we are experiencing arguments as if they were this.
What is war?
Linguistic symbols are instruments that allow us to decipher the meaning of behavior within its context.
Do symbols help us interpret?
He argued that language is not universal but particular to each language.
Who is Benjamin Lee Whorf?
Whorf described it as a shaper of ideas, the program and guide for the individuals mental activity, for his analysis of impressions, for his synthesis of his mental stock in trade.
What is grammar?
Edward Sapir explains that language is a guide to social reality because human beings do not live in this type of world alone, but process it through language.
What is the objective world?
Grammar works as an implicit agreement to classify and organize our thoughts.
Does grammar structure thought?
He argued that culture is encoded in the metaphors we use.
Who is George Lakoff?
Example refuted by Pinker, it describes a worker who tossed a cigarrette into a drum full of gasoline vapor due to the semantics of the word "empty".
What is the Whorf´s empty drum story?
Malinowski points out that to understand a conversation during a Trobriand canoe race, an outsider must understand the real-life setting, known as the context of this.
What is situation?
Languages use distinct grammatical instruments to frame and report the exact same physical reality.
Does grammar frame reality?
He described culture as a context that can be interpreted and described.
Who is Clifford Geertz?
It is what an outsider needs in order to understand the full meaning of each utterance, beyond just the linguistic data available.
What is the proper setting of native culture?
Clifford Geertz uses this simple facial action to show that physical movement alone isn't enough to understand human experience without knowing its cultural meaning.
What is a wink?
Vocabulary for emotions is a cultural instrument used to categorize human feelings.
Are emotion words tools?
THEY pointed out errors or problems in Whorf's Theory.
Who are Lenneberg and Roger Brown?
Term used to describe English words for emotions like "fear" or "shame", arguing they are not objective, cultural-free analytical framework.
What is a folk taxonomy?