American Linguistics Franz BoasEdward Sapir& Presented by: Mbark ERRAJI&Abderrahmane AMINE

Outline 1.Introduction 2.Franz Boas a.The Linguistic Relativity Principle b.The Phoneme Principle c.Other Basic Principles 3.Edward Sapir 4.Benjamin Lee Whorf a.The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis 5.Conclusion

Introduction The beginnings of modern American Linguistics can be said to have emerged at much the same time in Europe and the USA (late 19 th C. and early 20 th C.) In Europe, Ferdinand de Saussure was the founder of modern structural linguistics. He shifted from the diachronic aspects to the synchronic system of language. Unlike European linguistics, with its emphasis on theory, American priorities were firmly practical. The structuralist tradition in North America grew out of a combination of missionary linguistics (whose goal was to translate the bible) and Anthropology which was lead by Franz Boas.

Franz Boas  Born on July 9, 1858, Minden, Westphalia [Germany] — died on Dec. 22, 1942, New York, N.Y., U.S.  German-born U.S. anthropologist.  He is considered both the founder of modern anthropology as well as the father of American Anthropology.  Franz Boas early 1900s descriptive linguistics became the main strand within American linguistics until the rise of formal structural linguistics in the mid 20th century.  While undertaking geographical research in northern Canada he became fascinated with the Inuit people and decided to become an ethnographer.  He conducted a research study on native American languages in Baffin Island and in the Pacific Northwest.  He published descriptive studies of Native American languages, and wrote on theoretical difficulties in classifying languages, he left it to colleagues and students such as Edward Sapir to research the relationship between culture and language.

The Linguistic Relativity Principle  Linguistic relativity principle means that linguistic structure influences the cognition of language users.  The idea was first tackeled In 1820 by the German linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt who claimed that language is the very fabric of thought.  This idea was strongly supported by the American linguist William Dwight Whitney in order to eradicate the American native languages arguing that their speakers were savage and better to abandon their languages.  In contrast to Humboldt and Whitney, Boas always stressed the equal worth of all cultures and languages.  He argued that there was no such thing as primitive languages, but that all languages were capable of expressing the same content, but by widely differing means.

 According to Boas, in every language certain categories must be expressed, while other categories are left unexpressed. Example: Russian: singular/dual/plural English: singular/plural Chinese: no number marking “It does not seem likely [...] that there is any direct relation between the culture of a tribe and the language they speak, except in so far as the form of the language will be moulded by the state of the culture, but not in so far as a certain state of the culture is conditioned by the morphological traits of the language.” Boas, Franz (1911). Handbook of American Indian languages.

The Phoneme Principle  Boas answered In his book the Handbook of American Indian Languages the contemporary prejudice that ‘primitive peoples don’t pronounce accurately’ by pointing out that listeners impose their own sound system on others and then complain they cannot understand.  The first task of linguistics was to provide objectively accurate phonetic descriptions on the principle that ‘every single language has a definite and limited group of sounds’ (1911: 12). Later this was to become the phoneme principle.the phoneme principle

Other Basic Principles  All languages are different: ‘in a discussion of the characteristics of various languages, different fundamental categories will be found’ (1911: 39).  ‘Give each language its proper place’ (1911: 39), i.e. do not impose preconceived categories on the data – including categories derived from other Indian languages.  The sentence is the basic unit of language: ‘since all speech is intended to serve for the communication of ideas, the natural unit of expression is the sentence’ (1911:23).

Edward Sapir  Born on Jan. 26, 1884, Lauenburg, Pomerania, Germany — died on Feb. 4, 1939, New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.  Polish-born U.S. linguist and anthropologist.  He was a leader in American structural linguistics, was one of the first who explored the relations between language studies and anthropology.  One of Boas’s students who was famous along with his student Benjamin Lee Whorf for the “ Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. ”

Benjamin Lee Whorf  Born on April 24, 1897, Winthrop, Massachusetts, U.S. — died on July 26, 1941, Wethersfield, Connecticut, U.S.  U.S. linguist.  He worked professionally as a fire-prevention authority and it was during his work in that capacity that he became interested in the effect of the linguistic description of an event on the way in which people perceive the event.  The concept he developed (under Edward Sapir's influence) of the equation of culture and language became known as the Whorf (or Sapir-Whorf) hypothesis.

The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf examined the relationship between language, thought, and culture. Their hypothesis known as The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis states that there are certain thoughts of an individual in one language that cannot be understood by those who live in another language. The hypothesis also states that the way people think is strongly affected by their native languages.

The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis can be broken down into two basic principles: linguistic determinism and linguistic relativity. Linguistic Determinism refers to the idea that the language we use to some extent determines the way in which we view and think about the world around us.  Language may determine our thinking patterns. Linguistic relativity states that distinctions encoded in one language are unique to that language alone, and that "there is no limit to the structural diversity of languages".  Different languages offer people different ways of expressing the world around.

There are two versions of The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis:  Strong determinism states that language actually determines thought and that language and thought are identical. – Language limits culture. – All concepts are culturally bound. – Language dictates thought.

 Weak determinism, however, holds that thought is merely affected by or influenced by our language, whatever that language may be. – Lexicons will reflect aspects of the culture – Different ways of expressing ideas reflect different ways of perceiving the world

Conclusion Boas conducted descriptive studies of the Native American languges and paved the way to colleagues and students to invistgate the relationship between culture and language. Sapir and Whorf went further and examined this relationship in their hypothesis known as “The Sapir- Whorf Hypothesis”. Their idea needed a long-term research programme, but their early deaths, (Sapir (1939) and Whorf (1941),left a legacy of unfinished business. Bloomfield will come later and conduct more investigations with the same structural approach.

Some references Malmkjær, K. (2002).The Liguistic Encyclopedia, Second Edition. London : Routledge. Paul Kay und Willett Kempton (1984). What is the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis?American Anthropologist l l

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The Phoneme Principle Each phoneme (meaningful sound) of the language is represented by exactly one grapheme (independent letter), and each grapheme represents almost exactly one phoneme. This makes the language easy for its speakers to spell, and facilitates learning to read and write.