Critical Analysis On Definition Of Language By Edward Sapir 6j2v6c

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF EDWARD SAPIR’S DEFINITION OF LANGUAGE Presented by

Fatima shahid

LAHORE UNIVERSITY OF FUTURE EDUCATION

Critical analysis

The relationship between thought, reality and language has seized philosophers, linguists, anthropologists and psychologists for centuries. Mostly thinkers argue one of the following three positions in relation to the Sapir Hypothesis 1.

Language heavily influences thought (strong interpretation)

2.

Language does not influence thought

3.

Language partially influences thought (weak interpretation).

to Sapir Concept: Sapir starts by making his first claim and explaining it: "Walking is essentially innate. Language is not. It is learned and cultural"(My view rather than actual quote….). Language is obviously one of the cognitive skills that humans boast, and one of the most apparent differences between the human and other species. No surprise, then, that language is often considered the main hint to the secrets of the mind. After all, it is language through which our mind demonstrates itself and we can study the mind through language. Edward’s view on language is one that takes into not only cultural studies but the whole range of human sciences, among them sociology, philosophy, and psychology. He thought language as a cultural product and considers linguistics to be a fruitful possibility of a scientific study of society. Sapir characterizes language as purely human and non-instinctive. He believes that language affects the human thought’ “The fact of the matter is that the 'real world' is to a large extent unconsciously built upon the language habits of the group” (Edward Sapir)

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Olson (1970) who see that the category of perceptual and cognitive structures reflect individual experiences of the world. An event is always categorized depending on the context. Related with emotional words Levy (1973), through his studies in Tahiti explained that there was no similarity between feeling bad (bad feelings) in understanding people of Tahiti with the word sad (sad) in the English vocabulary. People more emphasize Tahiti mo'emo'e feelings (a sense of loneliness and isolation) instead of feeling sad. Levi said that this does not signify that the people who speak English cannot feel mo'emo'e and vice versa, people of Tahiti cannot feel sad, but it indicates that the feelings have a different status that cannot be paralleled. If the bad feelings (bad feeling) for the people who speak Tahiti are mo'emo'e and English are sad. Language is learned since the childhood. Language has a subjective orientation in expressing the world of human experience then Orientation was affected how people say and think. Through face study we can describe influence of language on the human mind. Derivation is exhibited from some statements to some experts, among others:

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Sapir’s hypothesis is ed by some research findings, especially to study human population. One anthropologist writes "language differences are related to the emotive activity”. Like, two persons who have different vocabulary of basic color will arrange the secondary colors in different ways. There are categories in the language, the basis of mental activity, such as memory, decision making and categorization according to Language relativistic. If this is true, then the studies of language differences are actually thoughts that caused the system.

Critical analysis 1. Language creates awareness 2. Language creates self-consciousness 3. Language creates structures of thought and symbolic representation 4. Language serves as one possible cue for memory 5. Language provides "Thinking for speaking Some Objections to the concept Sapir: The concept of Sapir encourages some objections among linguists and researchers. Psycho linguistics used it as the fundamental formation of objection is that any thought can be expressed in different ways. A man can say anything he wanted in a language so that between different languages has a parallel symbol. One example to demonstrate this objection is in the field of development. many cases in daily life shows that babies who do not yet have an optimal language was able to reason more than the things that attract them. For example 3-4 months old babies can understand the distance and solve problems regarding distance. The age of 5 months baby can make sense of basic arithmetic and logic s. if a baby have two objects in hand, they try to find two objects when these objects are hidden. The second evidence that shows that humans can think even without the use of language is the case of children who are not deaf to understand the structure of language signs. Above mentioned children s can find the signal and their own movements to convey their thinking s and wishes. The third proof is the case of a mental image that was presented by some people. Expert in the visual field have the ability to persuade which can be compared with the scientist or an author. Francis Cricks was able to find a double helix DNA structure by thinking visually, the well known Einstein can spawn physics formulas are spectacular with visual reasoning. Eskimos lives in snow, so they have many words about snow. Camel is very important for Arabians, so they have lots of vocabulary related to camel. Language is developed in accordance with the cultural challenges and not true that human beings cannot distinguish a few objects of perception because no words can express it. Although the

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in English.

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language is only using the word 'he' it does not mean Indonesian people don't understand the meaning 'he' and 'she'

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Critical analysis Humans can think without using language, but language skills assist ing and learning, draw conclusions and identify issues. Language permits individuals present events and objects in the form of words. With individual language capable of generalized experience and convey it to others because language is a system that is able to express all thoughts without limits. While most scientists believe that language is a social object which stands on an agreement to facilitate the communication, Chomsky has a different concept in accordance with the language "a natural object that is part of human biological heritage". It is something that human beings already have (Ludlow, 2000). Language for Chomsky is a reflection of the mind and the product of human intellect. By comprehending the natural language properties such as organization, procedures and structure will be able to use research to understand the characteristics of human instinct. Chomsky's thinking is opposite than Skinner about the process of language learning in children and this is also contrary to the Sapir's view. With the things that are hardwired so indirectly it can be concluded that the language has no connection with the mind. The Paul Kay's concept of language indirectly opposed to the Sapir's concept. Told him that the differences reflect the phenomena and objects in different languages do not necessarily reflect a difference in the concept. In order To comprehend the relativity of language, people should recognize as translating the language that there are several alternative schemes in the language and the individual language (Jaszczolt, 2000). Some experts see that the language relativistic lack of scientific , since studies have not proved these connections. According to Schlenker (Schlenker, 2004), humans do not exactly use the words in thinking, because if human thinking is affected by using the words then the patients who have limited language (language deficits) will automatically limited in thinking. Mind and the Verbal languages are different. However, this does not indicate that the mind is not a system that utilizes language symbols.like, the idea of computational models of the mind shows that the mind can be analogous to a computer capable of manipulating abstract symbols. Conclusion: The Sapir Hypothesis has changed the way many people look at the relationship between thought,

cultural

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scholars. While many like Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf the notion that language strongly influences

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perception of reality and language. It opened up large areas of study and has a very deep impression on many

Critical analysis thought and others argue that language does not influence thinking process, the evidence from research indicates that language does not govern thought or reality but language does influence thought and perception of reality to a

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degree.

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