Whorf argued that paying attention to how other physical phenomena are described in the study of linguistics could make valuable contributions to science by pointing out the ways in which certain assumptions about reality are implicit in the structure of language itself, and how language guides the attention of speakers towards certain phenomena in the world which risk becoming overemphasized while leaving other phenomena at risk of being overlooked.

Among Whorf's well known examples of linguistic relativity are examples of instances where an indigenous language has several terms for a concept that is only described with one word in English and other European languages ( Whorf used the acronym SAE " Standard Average European " to allude to the rather similar grammatical structures of the well-studied European languages in contrast to the greater diversity of the less-studied languages ).

*: The article on Whorf states " Drawing on Nietzsche's ideas of perspectivism Alfred Korzybski developed the theory of general semantics which has been compared to Whorf's notions of linguistic relativity.

Before leaving Whorf presented the paper " Stem series in Maya " at the Linguistic Society of America conference, in which he argued that in the Mayan languages syllables carry symbolic content.

Also in 1937, Whorf and his friend G. L. Trager, published a paper in which they elaborated on the Azteco-Tanoan language family, proposed originally by Sapir as a family comprising the Uto-Aztecan and the Kiowa-Tanoan languages —( the Tewa and Kiowa languages ).

This debate is analogous to that surrounding the Sapir – Whorf hypothesis in linguistics and cognitive science, which postulates that a particular spoken language's nature influences the habitual thought of its speakers.

This claim has been derived from the Sapir – Whorf hypothesis, which states that a language ’ s grammatical categories shape the speaker ’ s ideas and actions ; although Andrews says that moderate conceptions of the relation between language and thought are sufficient to support the " reasonable deduction ... cultural change via linguistic change ".

Though influential in their own right, these strands of research have not been given much attention in the debate surrounding linguistic relativity, which has tended to center on the American paradigm exemplified by Sapir and Whorf.

Another example in which Whorf attempted to show that language use affects behavior came from his experience in his day job as a chemical engineer working for an insurance company as a fire inspector.

It is these two formulations of Roger Brown's which have become widely known and attributed to Whorf and Sapir while in fact the second formulation, verging on linguistic determinism, was never advanced by either of them.

Moreover the European languages which gave rise to the creole languages of European colonies all belong to the same subgroup of Western Indo-European and have highly convergent grammars ; to the point that Whorf joined them into a single Standard Average European language group.

Babel-17 is a 1966 science fiction novel by American writer Samuel R. Delany in which the Sapir – Whorf Hypothesis ( that language strongly influences thought and perceived reality ) plays an important part.

The Languages of Pao is a science fiction novel by Jack Vance, first published in 1958, in which the Sapir – Whorf hypothesis is a central theme.

The Sapir – Whorf hypothesis, which states that thought is inherently embedded in language, would support the claim that an effort to limit the use of words of language is actually a form of restricting freedom of thought.

* Mike Whorf, the host of the music magazine Kaleidoscope, which focused on various music genres, themes, and eras

This is the Japanese version of the Sapir – Whorf hypothesis, according to which grammar determines world-view.

Benjamin Lee Whorf ( 1937 ) had performed an analysis and concluded that / t ͡ ɬ / was the reflex of Proto-Uto-Aztecan */ t / before / a / ( a conclusion which has been borne out ).

Whorf explained that by habitually speaking of the vapor-filled drums as empty and by extension as inert, the workers were oblivious to the risk posed by smoking near the " empty drums ".

" Whorf was also excellent at attracting new customers to the Fire Insurance Company ; they were impressed by his thorough inspections and recommendations.

The SSRC awarded Whorf the grant and in 1930 he traveled to Mexico City where Professor Robert H Barlow put him in contact with several speakers of Nahuatl to serve as his informants, among whom were Mariano Rojas of Tepoztlán and Luz Jimenez of Milpa Alta.

This formulation implicitly acknowledges that Sapir and Whorf were not the first or only scholars to have theorized about relations between language and thought and that other strands of thinking about the issue also exist.

Lakoff concluded that since many of Whorf's critics had criticized him using definitions of linguistic relativity that Whorf did not himself use, their criticisms were often ineffective.

Many of his stories, such as Gulf, If This Goes On —, and Stranger in a Strange Land, depend strongly on the premise, related to the well-known Sapir – Whorf hypothesis, that by using a correctly designed language, one can change or improve oneself mentally, or even realize untapped potential ( as in the case of Joe Green in Gulf ).

Harry Hoijer, one of Sapir's students, introduced the term " Sapir – Whorf hypothesis ", even though the two scholars never actually advanced any such hypothesis.

Since neither Sapir nor Whorf had ever stated an actual hypothesis, Brown and Lenneberg formulated one based on a condensation of the different expressions of the notion of linguistic relativity in their works.

In a 2003 presentation at an open source convention, Yukihiro Matsumoto, creator of the programming language Ruby, said that one of his inspirations for developing the language was the science fiction novel Babel-17, based on the Sapir – Whorf Hypothesis.

This can be considered a moderate offshoot of the Sapir – Whorf hypothesis, in that language and cognition mutually influence one another, and are both embedded in the experiences and environments of its users.

The succeeding director, Richard Whorf, took over the reins for one season and was in turn followed by former actor-turned-director Gene Reynolds from 1962 to 1964.

For instance, if one's worldview is fixed by one's language, as according to a strong version of the Sapir – Whorf hypothesis, one would have to learn or invent a new language in order to construct a new worldview.

Along with Wilhelm von Humboldt, Herder was one of the first to argue that language determines thought, a theme that two centuries later would be central to the Sapir – Whorf hypothesis.

This kind of approach was used by Whorf when he attributed the occurrence of fires at a chemical plant to the workers ' use of the word ' empty ' to describe the barrels containing only explosive vapors.

This leads to another debate ( see the Sapir – Whorf hypothesis or Eskimo words for snow ).

Láadan is a constructed language created by Suzette Haden Elgin in 1982 to test the Sapir – Whorf Hypothesis, specifically to determine if development of a language aimed at expressing the views of women would shape a culture ; a subsidiary hypothesis was that Western natural languages may be better suited for expressing the views of men than women.

Whorf said that " of all groups of people with whom I have come in contact, Theosophical people seem the most capable of becoming excited about ideas — new ideas.

It also reveals that the principle of linguistic relativity was so named because because Whorf saw that idea of his as having similar implications as Einstein's principle of physical relativity.

Whorf is widely known as an advocate for the idea that because of linguistic differences in grammar and usage, speakers of different languages conceptualize and experience the world differently.

This principle has frequently been called the " Sapir – Whorf hypothesis ", after him and his mentor Edward Sapir, but Whorf called it the principle of linguistic relativity, because he saw the idea as having implications similar to Einstein's principle of physical relativity.

This usage has been criticized as a misnomer, since Sapir and Whorf did not in fact formulate a hypothesis for empirical research, and because it is unclear to what extent Sapir actually subscribed to the idea of language influencing thought.

Whorf has sometimes been dismissed as an ' amateur ' because of his lack of an advanced degree in linguistics.

As Whorf became more influenced by positivist science he also distanced himself from some approaches to language and meaning that he saw as lacking in rigor and insight.

This line of interpretation suggests that a more sympathetic reading of Whorf would lead to a greater understanding of the subtleties in Whorf's use of terminology and consequently to resolving some of the apparent self contradication noted by Whorf's critics.

More recently Humboldt has also been credited as an originator of the linguistic relativity hypothesis ( more commonly known as the Sapir – Whorf hypothesis ), developed by linguists Edward Sapir or Benjamin Whorf a century later.