Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

Article

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is a recurring concept in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 2 times across 2 issues between May 14, 2021 and July 14, 2023. The archive places it in contexts such as “The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is not that strong”; “To what extent is the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis correct?“. It most often appears alongside Greece, India, Reddit.

Metadata

  • Category: Concepts
  • Mention count: 2
  • Issue count: 2
  • First seen: May 14, 2021
  • Last seen: July 14, 2023

Appears In

Source Context

Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.

May 14, 2021 · Original source
I am not an addiction researcher. I don’t know the formal definition of addiction. It is possible that the formal definition of addiction precludes the idea of activities being addictive. But that doesn’t change the fact that activities can absolutely be addictive given the layman’s definition of addiction. If the formal definition of “addiction” does not cover activities that drive compulsive, repetitive, unceasing behavior, then we need a new term that does cover it. But the lack of a word to describe addictive activities doesn’t mean that addictive activities don’t exist. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is not that strong.
July 14, 2023 · Original source
He drops the thread here, but one assumes that, after having learned a second language and dipped one’s toes into other languages, some of the cool ideas in linguistics could be introduced here. How do these languages connect to each other historically? What features, if any, do all languages have in common? To what extent is the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis correct?)