Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

萨丕尔-沃尔夫假说

A theory of the relationship between language and thought expounded in its most explicit form by the American anthropological linguists Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf. Also known as the theory of linguistic relativity, the hypothesis states (in the words of Whorf) that ‘we dissect nature along lines laid down by our native languages...by the linguistic systems in our minds.’ The differences in world-view imposed by different languages have, however, proved extremely difficult to elucidate or test experimentally, and the fact of successful bilingual translation weakens the force of the theory’s claims; as a result, the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis has made little impact on contemporary psycholinguistics.

一种关于语言和思维关系的理论，由美国人类语言学家爱德华·萨丕尔和本杰明·李·沃尔夫阐述得最为明确，也称作语言相关性理论。按照这种假说，（用沃尔夫的话说）“我们用我们头脑中的语言系统...按照自然语言规定的方向分析自然界。”但是由不同语言造成的世界观的差异已证明极难阐释或用实验验证，成功的双语翻译这一事实也削弱了这种理论主张的力量；结果是萨丕尔-沃尔夫假说对当代心理语言学没有产生多少影响。