"Language shapes the way we think, and determines what we can think about."
—Benjamin Lee Whorf (1897-1941)
"Language is not simply a reporting device for experience but a defining framework for it."
—Benjamin Lee Whorf (1897-1941)
"A change in language can transform our appreciation of the cosmos."
—Benjamin Lee Whorf (1897-1941)
"We cut nature up, organize it into concepts, and ascribe significances as we do, largely because we are parties to an agreement to organize it in this way - an agreement that holds through our speech community and is codified in the patterns of our language."
—Benjamin Lee Whorf (1897-1941)
"Most metaphysical words in Hopi are verbs, not nouns as in European languages."
—Benjamin Lee Whorf (1897-1941)
"We dissect nature along lines laid down by our native language."
—Benjamin Lee Whorf (1897-1941)
“Every language is a vast pattern-system, different from others, in which are culturally ordained the forms and categories by which the personality not only communicates, but also analyzes nature, notices or neglects types of relationship and phenomena, channels his reasoning, and builds the house of his consciousness.”
—Benjamin Lee Whorf (1897-1941)
“all higher levels of thinking are dependent on language.”
—Benjamin Lee Whorf (1897-1941)
“Second, that the structure of the language one habitually uses influences the manner in which one understands his environment. The picture of the universe shifts from tongue to tongue.”
—Benjamin Lee Whorf (1897-1941)