Sapir—Whorf Hypothesis and Its Implications for English Learning as a foreign Language

姜晴川

【Abstract】As a famous theory in the linguistics， Sapir-Whorf hypothesis states that language determines thought. It is still disputable in the academia. Based on the relation among language， thought and culture， the theory indicted that language has influence on thought. The study of the relationship between language and thought is significant， which gives the new implications for the learners all around the world. People who use different languages have different views of the world and different ways of thinking. The weak version is accepted by most people and it is the main topic of this paper. The theory has positive function to English learning.

【Key words】Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis； language； thought； culture

I. Introduction

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is the theory about the relation among language， thought and culture. The hypothesis has two versions， linguistic determinism and linguistic. Former one suggesting that language determines thought， while latter one suggesting that language have effect on thought. Based on the hypothesis， languages do affect thought to some degree. As for learning English as a foreign language， many aspects of English learning can have implications from this theory. Such as make use of cultural background knowledge to understand and learn the English vocabulary and pay more attention to the logic in English.

II. Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

General introduction to this theory. This hypothesis suggests that our language moulds our way of thinking， and consequently different language express speakers unique ways of understanding the world. The hypothesis has two important points， that is， linguistic determinism---language may determine our thinking patterns and linguistic relativity---similarity between languages is relative； the greater their structural differentiation is， the more diverse their conceptualization of the world will be.

Two versions of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis developed into a strong version and a weak version. The strong version emphasizes the decisive role of language as the shaper of our thinking patterns. The weak version， however， is a modified type of its original theory， suggesting that there is a correlation between language， culture， and thought， but the cross-cultural differences thus produced in our ways of thing are relative， rather than categorical.

III. The implications for English learning as a foreign language

Several specific implications of Sapir-Whorf hypothesis for English learning as a foreign language.

1. Make use of cultural background knowledge to understand and learn the English vocabulary. Because language has influence on its thought， it is very useful to learn its thinking mode during language learning. Thus， it is very necessary to learn the cultural background knowledge. As for English， the word “brother” means “a male having the same parents as another or one parent in common with another”（Hornby 246）. While in Chinese， the meaning is broadened， it not only means the male having the parents as another or one parent in common with another， but also contains the cousins.

In some idioms， the same meaning but different Chinese words and English words have been chosen. In English， people use “As timid as a rabbit” to describe one person is very weak and timid， “four tigers” refers to the four strong countries in Asian and “a lucky dog” means a lucky person. While in China， people say “as timid as a mouse”. And use “four dragons” instead of “tigers”. People do not describe one person with “a lucky dog”， because in Chinese the word “dog” has negative meaning.

2. Pay more attention to the logic in English. Chinese students often make mistakes in English for the Chinese thinking logic. There was a study on the students mistakes in English writing in the college entrance examination in the past 20 years. The result shows that 80% mistakes in English writing belong to the logic mistakes instead of the grammatical errors （An 157）. The difference between the two languages is that English thinking logic is a kind of straight mode compared with the Chinese spiral mode.

In English logic， they usually state the main point directly first， then add some explanations or statistics to prove and support the point. For example， “She was absent because her mother was sick yesterday.” On the opposite， Chinese students used to describe or express one thing indirectly， and with many completed and luxuriant words. For example， in the flowing paragraph， “I am a Chinese student who…As time passed， … studying English grew in my heart like a tree… so beautiful that… I decided to be with her all my life...”（Liu 80） Chinese scholar Wang Guowei thought that the Chinese traditional thoughts are lack of the training about the ways and method of logical thought（Zhang 70）.

IV. Conclusion

Based on the main points of this hypothesis， peoples thoughts are affected by their languages， so learn a new language is not only to learn the language itself， but also its way of thinking. Mr. Gu， once said that “A language system is a mode of cognition of one world outlook” （Gu 6）. So during English learning， it is very important to learn its critical thinking and the creative thinking which play vary important role in the human beings development and future.

References：

[1]AS Hornby.牛津高階英漢雙解詞典（第七版）[M].北京：商務印書館，牛津大學出版社，2009.