Language, Thought and Reality

Benjamin Lee Whorf, John B. Carroll

• Publisher: Barakaldo Books
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781839743825
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies
• Index: Social Sciences

Writings by the pioneering linguist Benjamin Whorf, including his famous work on the Hopi language as well as general reflections on language and meaning. The pioneering linguist Benjamin Whorf (1897–1941) grasped the relationship between human language and human thinking: how language can shape our innermost thoughts. His basic thesis is that our perception of the world and our ways of thinking about it are deeply influenced by the structure of the languages we speak. The writings collected in this volume include important papers on the Maya, Hopi, and Shawnee languages as well as more general reflections on language and meaning.—Print ed.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A. PUBLISHED WRITINGS OF BENJAMIN LEE WHORF

Date of Composition:

1925 “Purpose vs. evolution.” Letter to the editors of the New Republic, issue of December 19, 1925.

1927 [“On the connection of ideas.”] Printed for the first time in this volume, pp. 35-39.

1928 “Toltec history.” Twenty-Third International Congress of Americanists, New York, 1928: Abstracts of Papers, no. 109.

1928 “Aztec linguistics.” Twenty-Third International Congress of Americanists, New York, 1928: Abstracts of Papers, no. 116.

1928 “An Aztec account of the period of the Toltec decline.” Proceedings of the Twenty-Third International Congress of Americanists, New York, 1928, pp. 122-129.

1929 “The reign of Huemac.” American Anthropologist, 31:667-684 (1929).

1931 “A central Mexican inscription combining Mexican and Maya day signs.” American Anthropologist, 34:296-302 (1932).

1933 “The Maya manuscript in Dresden.” Art and Archaeology, 34:270 (1933).

1933 The phonetic value of certain characters in Maya writing. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1933 (Papers of the Peabody Museum, vol. XIII, no. 2). With an introduction by Alfred M. Tozzer. xii, 48 pp.

1935 Review of A. L. Kroeber, Uto-Aztecan languages of Mexico. American Anthropologist, 37:343-345 (1935).

1935 “The comparative linguistics of Uto-Aztecan.” American Anthropologist, 37:600-608 (1935).

1935 “Maya writing and its decipherment.” Maya Research, 2:367-382 (1935).

1936 Appendix to J. Alden Mason, “The classification of the Sonoran languages,” pp. 197-198 in Robert H. Lowie (editor), Essays in anthropology in honor of Alfred Louis Kroeber. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1936.

1936 Notes on the “Glossary,” pp. 1198-1326 in Elsie Clews Parsons, Hopi Journal of Alexander M. Stephens, Part 2. New York: Columbia University Press, 1936 (Columbia Contributions to Anthropology, 23).

1936 “The punctual and segmentative aspects of verbs in Hopi.” Language, 12:127-131 (1936).

1936 “Notes on the Tübatulabal language.” American Anthropologist, 38:341-344 (1936).

1936 “Loan-words in ancient Mexico.” Philological and Documentary Studies (Middle American Research Institute, Tulane University of Louisiana), 1:1-17 (1943). Also Studies in Linguistics, 5:49-64 (1947).

1936(?) “An American Indian model of the universe.” International Journal of American Linguistics, 16:67-72 (1950).

[Reprinted in Etc., a Review of General Semantics, 8:27-33 (1950); also in Collected papers on metalinguistics, Foreign Service Institute, Department of State, Washington, D.C., 1952.]

1936(?) “A linguistic consideration of thinking in primitive communities.” Printed for the first time in this volume, pp. 65-86.

1937 “The origin of Aztec TL.” American Anthropologist, 39:265-274 (1937).

1937 (with George L. Trager) “The relationship of Uto-Aztecan and Tanoan.” American Anthropologist, 39:609-624 (1937).

1937 “Grammatical categories.” Language, 21:1-11 (1945).

1937 [“Discussion of Hopi linguistics.”] Printed for the first time in this volume, pp. 102-111.

1938 “Some verbal categories of Hopi.” Language, 14:275-286 (1938)

1938 Review of K. T. Preuss and Ernst Mengin, Die Mexikanische Bilderhandschrift Historia Tolteca-Chichimeca: die Manuscripte 46-58bis der Nationalbibliothek in Paris, Teil I, Die Bilderschrift nebst Übersetzung (Berlin, 1937). American Anthropologist, 40:729-730 (1938).

1938 “Language: plan and conception of arrangement.” Printed for the first time in this volume, pp. 125-133.

1939 “The relation of habitual thought and behavior to language.” Pp. 75-93 in Leslie Spier (editor), Language, culture, and personality (Menasha, Wis.: Sapir Memorial Publication Fund, 1941).

[Reprinted in Collected papers on metalinguistics, Foreign Service Institute, Department of State, Washington, D.C., 1952.]

1939 “The Hopi Language, Toreva dialect.” Pp. 158-183 in Harry Hoijer (editor), Linguistic structures of native America (New York: Viking Fund, 1946).

1939 “The Milpa Alta dialect of Aztec, with notes on the Classical and the Tepoztlán dialects.” Pp. 367-397 in Harry Hoijer (editor), Linguistic structures of native America (New York: Viking Fund, 1946).

1939 “Gestalt technique of stem composition in Shawnee.” Appendix, pp. 393-406, to C. F. Voegelin, Shawnee stems and the Jacob P. Dunn Miami Dictionary. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society, 1940 (Prehistory Research Series, vol. I, no. 9, April 1940).

1940 “Blazing icicles.” [Article on fire prevention] Hartford, Conn.: Hartford Fire Insurance Company, n.d. [Reprinted from the Hartford Agent.]

1940 “Decipherment of the linguistic portion of the Maya hieroglyphs,” pp. 479-502 in The Smithsonian report for 1941, Publication 3669 (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1942). [Also in Spanish, “Interpretacion de la parte lingüstica de los geroglificos Maya.” Tzunpame, Òrgano de Publicidad del Museo Nacional y Auexos (San Salvador), 5:50-73 (August 1945), and Suplemento (Figures 1-4).]

1940 “Phonemic analysis of the English of eastern Massachusetts.” Studies in Linguistics, 2:21-40 (1943).

1940 Linguistic factors in the terminology of Hopi architecture.” International Journal of American Linguistics, 19:141-145 (1953).

1940 “Science and linguistics.” Technology Review (M.I.T.) 42:229-231, 247-248 (1940).

[Reprinted in S. I. Hayakawa, Language in action (New York: Harcourt-Brace, 1941), pp. 302-321; T. Newcomb and E. Hartley, Readings in social psychology (New York: Holt, 1947), pp. 210-218; and Collected papers on metalinguistics (Foreign Service Institute, Department of State, Washington, D. C„ 1952).]

1940 “Linguistics as an exact science.” Technology Review (M.I.T.) 43:61-63, 80-83 (1940).

[Reprinted in Collected papers on metalinguistics (Foreign Service Institute, Department of State, Washington, D.C., 1952).]

1941 “Languages and logic.” Technology Review (M.I.T.), 43:250-252, 266, 268, 272 (1941).

[Reprinted in Collected papers on metalinguistics (Foreign Service ...

Table of contents

• Title page
• Table of Contents
• FOREWORD
• INTRODUCTION
• ON THE CONNECTION OF IDEAS
• ON PSYCHOLOGY
• A CENTRAL MEXICAN INSCRIPTION COMBINING MEXICAN AND MAYA DAY SIGNS
• THE PUNCTUAL AND SEGMENTATIVE ASPECTS OF VERBS IN HOPI
• AN AMERICAN INDIAN MODEL OF THE UNIVERSE
• A LINGUISTIC CONSIDERATION OF THINKING IN PRIMITIVE COMMUNITIES
• GRAMMATICAL CATEGORIES
• DISCUSSION OF HOPI LINGUISTICS
• SOME VERBAL CATEGORIES OF HOPI
• LANGUAGE: PLAN AND CONCEPTION OF ARRANGEMENT
• THE RELATION OF HABITUAL THOUGHT AND BEHAVIOR TO LANGUAGE
• GESTALT TECHNIQUE OF STEM COMPOSITION IN SHAWNEE
• DECIPHERMENT OF THE LINGUISTIC PORTION OF THE MAYA HIEROGLYPHS
• LINGUISTIC FACTORS IN THE TERMINOLOGY OF HOPI ARCHITECTURE
• SCIENCE AND LINGUISTICS
• LINGUISTICS AS AN EXACT SCIENCE
• LANGUAGES AND LOGIC
• LANGUAGE, MIND, AND REALITY
• BIBLIOGRAPHY