Sapir-Whorfhypothesis萨丕尔-沃尔夫假说1.ThephilosophicalbasisoftheSapir-WhorfHypothesisisempiricalandthetheoreticalbackgroundisstructuralism.萨丕尔和沃尔夫是语言相对论思想的集大成者。2.WhilewerejectthestrongversionoftheSapir-Whorfhypothesis,itsweakerversionisgenerallyacceptedbymostscholars.尽管我们反对萨丕尔-沃尔夫假设的强假设，而大部分学者却普遍接受了其弱假设。Sapir-WhorfhypothesisEdwardSapirandBenjaminWhorf,proclaimedthatthestructureofthelanguagepeoplehabituallyuseinfluencesthewaystheythinkandbehave,i.e.differentlanguagesofferpeopledifferentwaysofexpressingtheworldaround,theythinkandspeakdifferently,thisisalsoknownaslinguisticrelativity.SapirandWhorfbelievethatlanguagefilterspeople’sperceptionandthewaytheycategorizeexperiences.ThisinterdependenceoflanguageandthoughtisnowknownasSapir-WhorfHypothesis.Strongversion&weakversionStrongversionbelievesthatthelanguagepatternsdeterminepeople’sthinkingandbehavior;Weakversionholdsthattheformerinfluencethelatter.----ThestudyofthelinguisticrelativityorSWHhasshedtwoimportantinsights:Thereisnowadaysarecognitionthatlanguage,ascode,reflectsculturalpreoccupationsandconstrainsthewaypeoplethink.MorethaninWhorf’sdays,however,werecognizehowimportantcontextisincomplementingthemeaningsencodedinthelanguage.MuchwasmadeoftheInuitlanguagewherethereisnopreciseequivalenttothesingleEnglishword"snow."Becausesnowissuchanimportantpartofsurvivalofpeopleofthenorth,theyhadnineteendifferentwordsthatvariedaccordingtotheconditionofsnow.Atfirst,somearguedthatthiswasonlyamatterofwhatsizesandshapesofboxesarethewordsweuseinwhichtoputexperiences.InEnglish,however,wehavenosinglewordmeaningthechemical,di-hydrogenoxide(H2O).Ifyouwanttoobjectandsay,"Butwehavetheword'water,'"letmepointoutthattheword"water"doesnotapplytoconditionsofH2Owhenitisfrozen,crystallizedorvaporized,forwhichwehaveotherwords(ice,snow,steam,fog,clouds,humidity).Fromthetimeweareborn,weareinundatedwiththousandsofbitsofinformationpersecond,assound,smell,touch,temperatureandsight.Theyaremanyandrandom.Inthemselves,theyhavenomeanings.Iti