Sapir-Wholf 假设

萨丕尔－沃尔夫假设

The American anthropologist-linguist Edward Sapir and his student Benjamin Lee Whorf proposed a sweeping, two-pronged hypothesis concerning language and thought.

美国人萨丕尔及其弟子沃尔夫提出的有关语言与思维关系的假设是这个领域里至今为止最具争议的理论。

Whorf proposed first that all higher levels of thinking are dependent on language. Or put it more bluntly, language determines thought, hence the strong notion of linguistic determinism. Because languages differ in many ways, Whorf also believed that speakers of different languages perceive and experience the world differently, that is, relative to their linguistic background, hence the notion of linguistic relativism.

acceptlanguage 沃尔夫首先提出，所有高层次的思维都倚赖于语言。说得更明白一些，就是语言决定思维，这就是语言决定论这一强假设。由于语言在很多方面都有不同，沃尔夫还认为，使用不同语言的人对世界的感受和体验也不同，也就是说与他们的语言背景有关，这就是语言相对论。

If follows from this strong version of the hypothesis that there is no real translation and that it is impossible to learn the language of a different culture unless the learner abandons his or here own mode of thinking and acquires the thought patterns of the native speakers of the target language.

由萨丕尔－沃尔夫假设的这种强假设可以得出这样的结论：根本没有真正的翻译，学习者也不可能学会另一种文化区的语言，除非他抛弃了他自己的思维模式，并习得说目的语的本族语者的思维模式。

Arguments against the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis 对萨丕尔－沃尔夫假设的批判

Words and meaning. It is widely accepted that the vocabulary of a language consists of nothing more than meaningless labels which are manipulated by language users to elicit emotional reactions or behavioral responses, to impart information or to direct the listener’s attention. The meaning of a word or phrase depends largely on the communicative context. As the context of a word or sentence changes, its effect and meaning also change.

词和意义。人们普遍接受了这一点：语言中的词汇只是一些无意义的标签，语言使用者用它们来引起情绪上的或行为上的反应，传递信息或引导听者的注意力。词和短语的意义在很多程度上倚赖于语境。词句的语境变了，它们的要旨和意义也随之而变。

Grammatical structure. The syntactic system of a language and the perceptual system of the speakers of that language do not have the kind of interdependent relationship that the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis claimed to have. Many grammatical features of a language are purely superficial aspects of linguistic structure.

语法结构。语言的句法系统和使用该语言的人的感知系统之间并没有萨丕尔－沃尔夫假设所声称的那种相互倚赖的关系。语言的许多语法特征都纯粹是语言结构的表层现象。

Translation. Another major argument against the hypothesis comes from the fact that successful translation between languages can be made. The translation argument is supported by the very fact that conceptual uniqueness of a language such as Hopi can nonetheless be explained in English.

翻译。对萨丕尔－沃尔夫假设的另一批判来自于语言间可以有成功的翻译这一事实。我们可以用英语来解释如霍皮语这样的语言的概念上的独特性，这一事实可以证明翻译批判的观点。

Second language acquisition. If languages have different conceptual systems, then someone who speaks one language will be unable to learn the other language because he lacks the right conceptual system. However, since people can learn radically different languages, those languages couldn’t have different conceptual systems.

第二语言习得。如果不同语言有不同的概念体系，那么说某种语言的人就会因为没有所需要的概念体系而无法学会另一种语言。然而，由于人们可以学会完全不同的语言，因而这些语言不应该有不同的概念体系。

Language and world views. The language system does not necessarily provide specifics of one’s world views. On the one hand, people speaking the same language may have different world views, including political, social, religious, scientific and philosophical views. On the other hand, people speaking different languages may share similar political, social, religious, scientific or philosophical views. Moreover, one language can describe many different world views, as is evident in the case of successful translation.

语言与世界观。语言体系并不一定能影响一个人对世界的看法。一方面，说同一语言的人对世界可能有不同的看法，包括政治观点、社会观点、宗教观点、科学观点和哲学观点都可能有所不同。另一方面，说不同语言的人也有可能有相似的政治观点、社会观点、宗教观点、科学观点和哲学观点。另外，一种语言也可以描述对世界的多种不同的看法，这一点在成功的翻译作品中可以看得很清楚。

What is Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis?

The Sapir-Whorf theory, named after the American linguists Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf, is a very influential but controversial theory concerning the relationship between language, thought and culture. What this hypothesis suggests is like this: our language helps mould our way of thinking and, consequently, different languages may probably express our unique ways of understanding the world. Following this argument, two important points could be captured in this theory. On the one hand, language may determine our thinking patterns; on the other, similarity between languages is relative, the greater their structural differentiation is, the more diverse their conceptualization of the world will be. For this reason, this hypothesis has alternatively been referred to as Linguistic Determinism and Linguistic Relativity. Nowadays, few people would possibly tend to accept the original form of this theory completely. Consequently, two versions of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis have been developed, a strong version and a weak version. The strong version of the theory refers to the claim the original hypothesis suggests, emphasizing the decisive role of language as the shaper of our thinking patterns. The weak version of this hypothesis, 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 thinking are relative, rather than categorical.

萨丕尔-沃尔夫假说有两个部分：

1 语言决定论，即一个人的思维完全由母语决定，因为一个人只能根据其母语中编码设定的范畴和区别定义来认识世界；

2 语言相对论，即语言结构有无限的多样性，因此一种语言系统中所编定的范畴类别和区分定义为该语言系统所独有，与其他语言系统中所编定的范畴类别和区分定义不同。

一个是强势说，是“萨丕尔——沃尔夫假说”的初始假说，认为语言在塑造我们思维的过程中起决定性作用；一个是弱式说，是初始假说的修正形式，认为语言、文化、思维之间具有相关性。