Language, thinking and embodiment

Bakhtin, Whorf and Merleau-Ponty

Hannele Dufva

pp. 133-146

in: Finn Bostad, Craig Brandist, Lars Evensen, Faber (eds), Bakhtinian perspectives on language and culture, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2004

Abstract

In this chapter, I will discuss the relationship between language, thinking and culture and aim to combine three different frameworks. I will start with Benjamin Lee Whorf's (1897–1941) work. I will argue in line with, for instance, Lee (1996) that the arguments which have later been known as the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, or the hypothesis of linguistic relativity, have been largely misinterpreted within linguistic sciences since the 1950s. Apart from some early dissident voices, for instance Dan Alford's work,¹ Whorf's ideas have started gaining wider understanding only recently (see for instance Gumperz and Levinson 1996).

Cited authors

Merleau-Ponty Maurice

Bachtin Michajl

Whorf Benjamin