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What Is the Sapir‐Whorf Hypothesis?
Abstract
The history of empirical research on the Sapir‐Whorf hypothesis is reviewed. A more sensitive test of the hypothesis is devised and a clear Whorfian effect is detected in the domain of color. A specific mechanism is proposed to account for this effect and a second experiment, designed to block the hypothesized mechanism, is performed. The effect disappears as predicted. The Sapir‐Whorf hypothesis is reevaluated in the light of these results.
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Cited by
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Russell, J. A. (1991) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.110.3.426 · Cited by 1,344
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Winawer, J., Witthoft, N., Frank, M. C., Wu, L., Wade, A. R., & Boroditsky, L. (2007) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.0701644104 · Cited by 1,021
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Humphreys, A., & Wang, R. J.-H. (2018) · Journal of Consumer Research · doi:10.1093/jcr/ucx104 · Cited by 636
Coordinating perceptually grounded categories through language: A case study for colour
steels, L., & belpaeme, T. (2005) · Behavioral and Brain Sciences · doi:10.1017/s0140525x05000087 · Cited by 440
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Prates, M. O. R., Avelar, P. H., & Lamb, L. C. (2020) · Neural Computing and Applications · doi:10.1007/s00521-019-04144-6 · Cited by 410
Metadata
- Authors
- Kay, P., & Kempton, W.
- Venue
- American Anthropologist
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 1984-03
- Volume
- 86
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 65-79
- ISSN
- 0002-7294 (ISSN-L)
- 1548-1433
- OpenAlex
- W1997760292
- Cited by
- 933
- References
- 0
- FWCI
- 6.09
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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- Kay, P., & Kempton, W. (1984). What Is the Sapir‐Whorf Hypothesis? American Anthropologist. https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1984.86.1.02a00050
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