ANTH 161 Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: Science Museum, London, Benjamin Lee Whorf, Red Color
2 Jul 2019
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Document Summary
Benjamin lee whorf published an article on his idea that language has power over the mind and our mother tongue restricts what we are able to think. His article became famous, however, he didn"t have any evidence to prove it and people rejected it. New studies have found that our mother tongue can affect how we acquire certain habits of thought that shape our experience. Whorf was wrong in that if people did not have a word in their mother language for a certain concept, then they would not be able to understand that concept. There is no evidence that any language forbids its speakers to think of anything. There are differences, however, such that in french or spanish the gender of someone is automatically revealed while in english it is not, or that chinese does not specify a timing.
