It's important to remember that Whorf was theorizing about _habitual_  
thought that is influenced by language. He thought that some  
languages reflected the physical world better than others. For  
instance, in English, "lightning" is a noun, and we don't even have  
an exclusive verb for it, but physically, it's an event or process  
much more than a thing. He obviously didn't think that we are  
irrevocably stuck in patterns of thought because of our language,  
because his very recommendation was that we use other languages for  
physical descriptions of the world, hence he had to believe that we  
could modify our thoughts to fit the language we are using.

The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis has been out of favor for a long time, but  
numerous linguists are exploring it again and looking for some  
empirical support for it. I have seen notices for conferences, for  
example. I have not been following the developments, but it would be  
interesting to see what is being discovered. I did review a paper for  
Language which purported to show some Whorfian effect regarding  
spatial orientation, which was a little more convincing than the work  
on color, which has been discredited.

In Lakoff and Johnson's model of metaphorical thought, metaphor  
precedes language -- that is, language reflects metaphorical thought;  
it only creates it to the extent that particular metaphors are  
propagated throughout a culture via its language. Some metaphors are  
culture-specific, and some are (according to L & J) universal. Either  
kind can influence how scientists analyze the world and how they  
build models of it. Lakoff has a book (with a co-author) on the  
metaphorical origins of mathematics, but I don't recall the title. A  
cruise on his web page is likely to reveal it. L & J propose that  
metaphor influences not only language, but behavior. For instance,  
reifying time into units impels us to create things like hourly wages  
and parking meters.

It's worth noting that L & J propose that we can change our thought  
habits by adopting new metaphors, for instance "marriage is a  
collaborative work of art" rather than traditional physical-bond  
metaphors. Different metaphors can give a different spin on  
phenomena, creating new linguistic metaphors and new habits of thought.

Dr. Johanna Rubba, Ph. D.
Associate Professor, Linguistics
Linguistics Minor Advisor
English Dept.
Cal Poly State University San Luis Obispo
San Luis Obispo, CA 93407
Ofc. tel. : 805-756-2184
Dept. tel.: 805-756-2596
Dept. fax: 805-756-6374
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
URL: cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba

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