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Annotated Bibliography

Speaking in Thought: How Language Affects Thoughts

Cameron Burkey

Professor Malcolm Campbell

Writing 1103

22 October 2019
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Hussein, Basel. “The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis Today.” ​Theory and Practice in Language

Studies​, vol. 2, Mar. 2012, pp. 642–46. Date accessed: 26 Sept. 2019

The academic article begins with a quick introduction to the concept of linguistic

relativity—the theory that language can shape the perspective of its speakers—and its

origins in German philosophy. It was Wilhelm von Humboldt, a Prussian philosopher

known for his linguistic analysis, government work and beliefs, and founding of the

Humboldt University of Berlin, who really brought the idea of linguistic relativity into

the yet-nonexistent field of linguistics. However, the theory really takes off under the two

men for whom it is named, Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf. Sapir was an

anthropologist and is seen by many as the founder of linguistics as a formal discipline. He

argued that language changed the perception of the world for its speakers and that, since

different language systems exist, people who speak these languages perceive the world

differently. Whereas Sapir believed that language can influence perception, Whorf took

the more “radical” viewpoint in his theory, the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, arguing that

language actually defines the speaker’s reality. German linguist Helmut Gipper argues

the question is not whether language affects our perception of reality, but to what extent

does it do so? The article concludes by explaining Whorf’s strictly deterministic approach

to linguistic relativity “may not have been right on all accounts,” but it does bear some

merit. Language does play a role in how we think; like Gipper said, what has yet to be

established is how much it does. The author, Basel Al-Sheikh Hussein, received his Ph.D.

from the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Germany and worked as an instructor of

linguistics at the University of Takreet and an assistant professor at the Al-Isra

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University, the Al- Zarka University, and the Al- Zaytoonah University. He presents

information found from numerous reliable sources and thus I conclude that the article is

not only reliable but quite useful as a general outline of the theory of linguistic relativity.

Smith, Kerri. “Perception Coloured by Language.” ​Nature,​ 3 Mar. 2008. Doi:

10.1038/news.2008.638. nature.com/news/2008/080303/full/news.2008.638.html.

Accessed: 16 Oct. 2019.

This news article reviews a study by Paul Kay, a professor of linguistics at the University

of California, Berkeley, on when the perception of color switches from the right side of

the brain to the left side. The significance of where the brain processes color lies in where

language is processed as well: the left side. Kay found babies tend to process colors on

the right side of their brain while adults tend to process them on the left side. He

concluded that, with prior evidence from previous color-related studies, that language

could very well be the determining factor in how people process colors. Before we learn

to speak a language, our brains interpret color on the right sides of our brains. However,

once we’ve established colors’ relationships to language, our brains use the definitions of

colors that are created to categorize them, using the left side of our brain. Jonathan A.

Winawer, an associate professor of psychology at the New York University, agrees that

language is a “good candidate for the difference,” as Smith writes. He argues that there

are many differences between adults and babies, however, so it may not be a single cause

or it could be something entirely different and it’s purely a coincidence. In another report

published in the ​Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences​, Kay and his team

found that, when presented with colors that were easier to define in their native language,
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subject’s brains were more active in the parts of the brain where language was typically

processed. Colors that were more difficult to name, however, produced less activation in

these areas. Kay concludes that these results prove (or strongly suggest) that language is

an integral part of color perception, which supports the linguistic relativity theory.

Winawer once again agrees that the evidence could very well agree that language is an

integral part of perception, but he also argues that it, as with the other experiment, is not

direct absolutely proof of linguistic relativity as it relates to color perception. Smith then

explains Whorf’s hypothesis and goes into more detail about a study by Chiyoko

Kobayashi from Cornell University. Kobayashi’s study determined that fields such as

understanding others’ thought processes, called the theory of mind, are reliant upon

language. Kerri Smith has been a journalist for the Nature journal since 2006 and has a

degree in human sciences from Oxford. Her sources for this article are entirely from

academic journal articles and thus I conclude are reliable. She also includes the slight

skepticism from Winawer to remain unbiased on the subject and present opposing

viewpoints for a more whole view of the subject matter. I conclude that this article is

reliable and I plan to use it in my extended inquiry project as it helps support the

argument that some aspects of perception may be influenced by the language we speak,

though it isn’t as strong as some previous philosophers argued.

Comments for 1st citation:

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● Your grammar and use of language is really good

● I think you should include the actual author of the book at least once in the

beginning of your annotation because it confused me at first and it sounded like

the book was written by Sapir and Whorf.

● It doesn’t look to me like you explained the usefulness of this first source and

whether you’re going to use it and if it changed your opinion about your topic

● Maybe go over if this book is still relevant and accurate (even though it probably

is)

● Mention that the source is a book in the first sentence because we get points off

for that

● Maybe write a few more sentences just in general to make it a page and a half if

you can.

● Overall the summary is great you just need to write more about the usefulness