Audio Transcript Excerpt:
PROFESSOR: 'In cognitive linguistics, the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, or linguistic relativity, proposes that the structural cat

Question

Audio Transcript Excerpt:
PROFESSOR: 'In cognitive linguistics, the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, or linguistic relativity, proposes that the structural categories of a particular language influence the cognitive perceptions and categorization habits of its speakers. Consider grammatical gender. In German, 'sun' (*die Sonne*) is grammatically feminine, while 'moon' (*der Mond*) is masculine; in Spanish, the genders are reversed (*el sol* is masculine, *la luna* is feminine). When cognitive psychologists ask bilingual subjects to assign descriptive adjectives to personified depictions of the sun and moon, German speakers consistently choose feminine descriptors like 'gentle' and 'warm' for the sun, while Spanish speakers choose masculine descriptors like 'fierce' or 'strong.''

How does the experimental evidence with adjectives connect to the linguistic relativity hypothesis?

Accepted Answer

It demonstrates that grammatical gender classifications in language subtly influence how speakers perceive and conceptualize inanimate objects.

Answer

It proves that speakers cannot perceive physical sunlight unless their language has a word for it.

Answer

It shows that Spanish and German speakers have identical emotional responses to celestial objects.

Answer

It proves that language structure has zero impact on non-linguistic mental processing.

Practice More TOEFL iBT Connecting Content Questions

More Connecting Content Questions in TOEFL iBT

Practice More TOEFL iBT Connecting Content Questions

More Connecting Content Questions in TOEFL iBT