Table Of ContentTHE WHORF THEORY COMPLEX
AMSTERDAM STUDIES IN THE THEORY AND
HISTORY OF LINGUISTIC SCIENCE
General Editor
E.F. KONRAD KOERNER
(University of Ottawa)
Series III - STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF THE LANGUAGE SCIENCES
Advisory Editorial Board
Sylvain Auroux (Paris); Ranko Bugarski (Belgrade)
Lia Formigari (Rome); Hans-Josef Niederehe (Trier)
Emilio Ridruejo (Valladolid); R. H. Robins (London)
Rosane Rocher (Philadelphia); Vivian Salmon (Oxford)
Aldo Scaglione (New York); Kees Versteegh (Nijmegen)
Volume 81
Penny Lee
The Whorf Theory Complex
A critical reconstruction
THE WHORF
THEORY COMPLEX
A CRITICAL RECONSTRUCTION
PENNY LEE
The University of Western Australia
JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY
AMSTERDAM/PHILADELPHIA
TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
8
the American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence
of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lee, Penny.
The Whorf theory complex : a critical reconstruction / Penny Lee.
p. cm. (Amsterdam studies in the theory and history of linguistic science. Series III,
Studies in the History of the Language Sciences, issn 0304-0720 ; v. 81)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. 2. Linguistic analysis (Linguistics) 3. Whorf, Benjamin Lee,
1897-1941. I. Title. II. Series.
P35.L44 1996
401’.9--dc20 96021119
isbn 978 90 272 4569 4 (EUR) / 978 1 55619 618 8 (US) (Hb ; alk. paper)
isbn 978 90 272 4570 0 (EUR) / 978 1 55619 619 5 (US) (Pb ; alk. paper)
isbn 978 90 272 8390 0 (Eb)
© 1996 – John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any
other means, without written permission from the publisher.
John Benjamins Publishing Co. · P.O. Box 36224 · 1020 me Amsterdam · The Netherlands
John Benjamins North America · P.O. Box 27519 · Philadelphia pa 19118-0519 · usa
Dedicated to the memory of Janet Keeley
kind teacher, guide, and friend
Benjamin Lee Whorf (1897-1941)
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments vii
Preface xi
Chapter 1. Introduction and Overview
1.1 The Early Work: 1924-1930 1
1.2 1931-1941: The Final Years 9
1.3 Misread, Unread, and Superficially Treated 14
1.4 The Theory Complex — An Overview 23
1.5 Elements of the Complex Summarized 30
Chapter 2. Linguistic Thinking: Points, Pattern, Linkage, and
Rapport
2.1 Patternment 34
2.2 Points in the Pattern 42
2.3 Emergent from a Field of Causes 53
2.4 Linguistic Thinking 65
2.5. Form and Substance, Process and Content — Cutting through the
Dichotomies to Linguistic Thinking 72
Chapter 3. The Logic and Development of the Linguistic Relativity
Principle
3.1 The Linguistic Relativity Principle 84
3.2 Raw Experience 89
3.3 Isolates of Experience — the Nonlinguistic Configuration of
Experience 96
3.4 A Canon of Reference, the Same for all Observers 109
3.5 The Biological Segmentation of Reality 118
3.6 Different Essentials from the Same Situation 122
3.7 The Yale Report and Configurative Linguistics 128
viii TABLE OF CONTENTS
3.8 An Analysis of Hopi Stems — Gestalt Theory in the Service of
Linguistics 136
3.9 Overview of the Yale Report 143
Chapter 4. Of Covert Categories, Cryptotypes, and the Internalized
Linguistic System
4.1 A Whorfian Psycholinguistics 160
4.2 Marking and Grammatical Classes 165
4.3 Terminological Anomalies 168
4.4 Grammatical Meaning and The Problem of Levels in Linguistic
Description 172
4.5 The Data of Utterances 186
Chapter 5. Abstractive Processes and the Question of Universals
5.1 Abstractive Processes in Cognition 193
5.2 Experiential, Conceptual, and Linguistic Universals 211
Chapter 6. Metalinguistics: The Intercalibration of Agreement
through Language Awareness
6.1 Introductory Comments 224
6.2 Three Kinds of Agreement 225
6.3 Metalinguistics 228
6.4 Language Awareness as an Augmentative Function in Cognition .... 238
6.5 Different Order Systems, Different Logics, and the Progress of
Science 245
Appendix: 'The Yale Report" 251
References 281
Index of Names 301
Index of Subjects 304
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Although one labors largely alone in writing, the network of human relation
ships within which one exists is as much part of the matrix from which the book
ultimately emerges as is one's own intellectual and creative strivings. One grows
and changes with the maturing manuscript, absorbing the wealth of contributing
influences into one's own being as well as into what is finally shared in the fin
ished work. In these acknowledgments it is inevitable that some of the more
subtle debts to others remain unsaid. If some have been overlooked altogether I
apologize.
It is appropriate to thank Toby Metcalfe first for alerting me to the existence
of Whorf s ideas in 1984 when I was struggling to express feelings of cultural
and linguistic dissonance after a sojourn in North East Arnhemland, Australia.
From Canada, Louis Buchanan in a serendipitous act of kindness later let me
know of the existence of the unpublished Whorf papers held in the Yale ar
chives. For this I will always be grateful as the material was very little known at
the time.
Then there are the playmates of my childhood who made me bilingual in
Fijian and English, and my indigenous Australian friends and confidantes who
shared their language and culture with me during two crucial years in later life. It
seems right to think of these people now.
Without Michael Herriman, whose gentle promptings and ongoing support
from 1987 ensured that philosophical and psycholinguistic implications of
Whorf's ideas were at least grappled with as they unfolded, the work might
never have been carried through to this stage of completion. Susan Kaldor has
been there also for most of these years, a good friend and mentor especially in
difficult times. Thanks too to those other colleagues in Australia at various times
— Ian Malcolm, Peter Mühlhausler, Gerhart Bickers, Paul Healy, Gedda Aklif,
Graham McKay, Terry Williams, Margaret Sharpe, Michael Booth, Bernard
Mageean, and Barry Maund who read sections of my work and provided useful
feedback and encouragement. Also Ruqaiya Hasan and Michael Halliday for
some early incisive questioning in relation to central concepts. Michael Clyne
gave crucial advice and support during a crisis and Keith Allen helped keep the
project going by inviting me to Monash to talk about Whorf. Much appreciated
opportunities to work in university environments have been provided by The
x ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Western Australian College of Advanced Education (now Edith Cowan
University), The University of Western Australia (UWA), and The Flinders
University of South Australia (FUSA).
E. F. Konrad Koerner, my indefatigable editor in more recent times, has
been a source of much appreciated advice and guidance since 1990. I owe
sincere thanks too to Regna Darnell and John E. Joseph whose efficiency,
advice, and personal support beyond the call of duty helped greatly during the
rewriting process. To Yola de Lusenet and Anke de Looper of John Benjamins
too, thank you for being so approachable, helpful, and understanding. None of
the debts acknowledged in these pages, however, remove the final responsibility
for the book from me — the usual disclaimers apply.
It is difficult to find appropriate words to thank those contemporaries of
Whorf who responded to my letters or allowed me to visit them and who shared
memories and insights with me. I feel deeply privileged to have been able to
meet Whorf s daughter, Celia Lee W. Wheeler and her husband, Robert G.
Wheeler, who were very kind during my visit to the United States of America in
1990 and who have continued to encourage me since. Of Whorf s friends and
associates, Mary R. Haas, George L. Trager, Charles F. Hockett, and Henry M.
Hoenigswald shared memories with me when I visited. Chas Hockett later also
provided extensive critical input and corresponded regularly, generously sharing
his insights, advice, and lively sense of humor. John B. Carroll was interested
and supportive from 1989 and in the course of a sustained email interchange
during 1993 and 1994 contributed invaluable encouragement and assistance,
critically needed during a difficult time. I was also moved by the interest in and
responsiveness to my letters of Frank T. Siebert, Norman A. McQuown, Fred
Eggan, and Murray B. Emeneau, all of whom knew Whorf. In addition, I thank
James S. Perkins, a former president of The Theosophical Society in America,
who put me in touch with the Whorf family through his daughter, Torre P.
Taggart, formerly married to one of Whorf s sons. (Both sons are now
deceased).
Others who helped me understand the academic milieu of the decades
following Whorf s death are M. Estellie Smith and Edith Trager Johnson, both
of whom also provided hospitality, transport, valuable reminiscences, and much
appreciated personal support when I visited the US. Estellie has remained a
stalwart mentor and counselor since, several times bullying me energetically out
of states of acute discouragement. Nor will I forget the kindness and
understanding of John and Elsie Trager when I visited Pasadena in ill health and
late summer heat. An interview with Henry Sustakoski at Buffalo was also very
interesting. Others who helped with information are Dell Hymes, Kenneth L.
Pike, Ives Goddard, Mary Ritchie Key, and Philip Sapir. I thank them all. I am
