modern studies of linguistic determinism and relativity
Modern research
While linguistic relativity is still a hot topic for linguistic debates, studies conducted in the past half century still center around this theory. Here are a couple notable and recent aspects of linguistic relativity.
color Terminology
Lenneberg and Roberts, two linguists, decided to use test the theory of linguistic relativity as a hypothesis by studying how speakers of other languages determine colors. in 1953, they studied Zuni speakers of New Mexico. Zuni speakers have only one word for yellow and orange which made it more difficult for them to distinguish or recall the differences than would an English speaker. The nature of this is attributed to the concept of linguistic codability which is "the ease with which people can name things and the effects of naming on cognition." (Linguistic Relativity, 2014).
Steven pinker
Steven Pinker, cognitive linguistic scientist and Harvard professor, is one of the current and most fervent critics of Whorfianism. He denounced Whorf's work with the Hopi, drawing from anthropologist Malokti who further studied Hopi time in 1983. Malokti found that the Hopi do have units of time and a sophisticated calendar. Pinker's most notable blow to linguistic determinism/relativism comes from his study of languageless adults. A man known as Idlefonso was an immigrant without any language whatsoever, but once taught sign language was able to recount his life story. If linguistic determinism held true, the man would have no way in which to view the world and would have no methods of which to think. Pinker further critiques color studies by saying that "The way we see colours determines how we learn them, not vice versa." (Davies, 2001)