Humboldt, Worldview and Language
With the loss of many of the world's languages, it is important to question what will be lost to humanity with their demise. It is frequently argued that a language engenders a 'worldview', but what do we mean by this term? Attributed to German politician and philologist Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767-1835), the term has since been adopted by numerous linguists. Within specialist circles it has become associated with what is known as the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis which suggests that the nature of a language influences the thought of its speakers and that different language patterns yield different patterns of thought.
Underhill's concise and rigorously researched book clarifies the main ideas and proposals of Humboldt's linguistic philosophy and demonstrates the way his ideas can be adopted and adapted by thinkers and linguists today. A detailed glossary of terms is provided in order to clarify key concepts and to translate the German terms used by Humboldt.
1, The Word is a World (La parole est un monde)
2, What do we have in mind when we talk about language?
3, What do we see in the term Worldview?
4, Boas
5, Sapir
6, Whorf
Part II: Humboldt, Man and Language
7, Worldview (Weltanschauung or Weltansicht)
8, Sprache
9, The Work of the Mind
10, Form
11, Creativity, Culture and Character
12, Catching the Character
13, A Seeing and Feeling Worldview
14, Four Dangers in the Comparative Approach
15, Reformulating the Worldview Hypothesis
16, A Final Word
A thoughtful and helpful contribution on an important topic.
A thoughtful and helpful contribution on an important topic.
James Underhill shows a great mastery concerning the general theory of language. It is extremely rare to find nowadays any thinker, either in linguistics or philosophy, whose thought continues the way Humboldt linked the word and the world.
James Underhill shows a great mastery concerning the general theory of language. It is extremely rare to find nowadays any thinker, either in linguistics or philosophy, whose thought continues the way Humboldt linked the word and the world.
