Until his return from Mexico in 1930 Whorf had been entirely an autodidact in linguistic theory and field methodology, yet he had already made a name for himself in Middle American linguistics.

Whorf published several articles on that topic in this period, some of them with G. L. Trager, who had become his close friend.

Whorf argued that it was exactly the reluctance to apply linguistic analysis of Maya languages that had held the decipherment back.

But the reputation he had during his lifetime belies this idea: his academic peers at Yale University considered the " amateur " Whorf to be the best man available to take over Sapir's graduate seminar in Native American linguistics while Sapir was on sabbatical in 1937 – 38.

In 1953 psychologist Eric Lenneberg published a detailed criticism of the line of thought that had been fundamental for Sapir and Whorf.

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.

Whorf himself had expressed the sentiment thus:

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.

Among American linguists, Benjamin Lee Whorf had " the most profound effect on my own thinking ".

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 ).

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.

During his stay at Yale, Whorf acquired this current of thought partly from Sapir and partly through his own readings of Russell and Ogden and Richards.

Sapir also encouraged Whorf to continue his work on the historical and descriptive linguistics of Uto-Aztecan.

He was a Lecturer in Anthropology from 1937 through 1938, replacing Sapir, who was gravely ill. Whorf gave graduate level lectures on " Problems of American Indian Linguistics ".

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.

Loglan is a constructed language originally designed for linguistic research, particularly for investigating the Sapir – Whorf Hypothesis.

* Sapir – Whorf hypothesis

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 ".

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 ).

Popularly known as the Sapir – Whorf hypothesis, or Whorfianism, the principle is often defined as having two versions: ( i ) the strong version that language determines thought and that linguistic categories limit and determine cognitive categories and ( ii ) the weak version that linguistic categories and usage influence thought and certain kinds of non-linguistic behaviour.

The term " Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis " is a misnomer, as Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf never co-authored anything, and never stated their ideas in terms of a hypothesis.

Also the distinction between a weak and a strong version of the hypothesis is a later invention, as Sapir and Whorf never set up such a dichotomy although in their writings at times their view of this relativity principle are phrased in stronger or weaker terms.

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

A 1969 study by Brent Berlin and Paul Kay claimed to demonstrate that color terminology is subject to universal semantic constraints, and hence to discredit the Sapir – Whorf hypothesis.

Empirical research into the question has been associated mainly with the names of Benjamin Lee Whorf, who wrote on the topic in the 1930s, and his mentor Edward Sapir, who did not himself write extensively on the topic.

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.

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.

" Neither Sapir nor Whorf ever suggested a distinction between weak or strong versions of their views.

* Benjamin Lee Whorf, linguist and fire prevention engineer

* 1897 – Benjamin Lee Whorf, American linguist ( d. 1941 )

Benjamin Lee Whorf ( April 24, 1897 – July 26, 1941 ) was an American linguist and fire prevention engineer.

In addition to Nahuatl, Whorf studied the Piman and Tepecano languages, while in close correspondence with linguist J. Alden Mason.

More than any other linguist, Benjamin Lee Whorf has become associated with what he himself called " the principle of linguistic relativity ".

Richards's older brother was the well-known American linguist, Benjamin Lee 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.

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

Whorf studied Biblical linguistics mainly at the Watkinson Library ( now Hartford Public Library ).

It was at the Watkinson library that Whorf became friends with the young boy, John B. Carroll, who later went on to study psychology under B. F. Skinner, and who in 1956 edited and published a selection of Whorf's essays as Language, Thought and Reality.

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.

Whorf took Sapir's first course at Yale on " American Indian Linguistics ".

In 1936, Whorf was appointed Honorary Research Fellow in Anthropology at Yale, and he was invited by Franz Boas to serve on the committee of the Society of American Linguistics ( later Linguistic Society of America ).

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.

Whorf Papers at Yale University Library Manuscripts and Archives

Whorf died in 1941 at age 44 and left behind a number of unpublished papers.

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.

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.

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.

Edwards talked to Peabody Award winning radio personality Mike Whorf about 1776 in an audio interview at Official 1776 web site.

Whorf began his acting career on the Boston stage as a teenager then moved to Broadway at age 21.