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The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis has been widely debunked. It feels right, so it keeps getting spread around as a fact. The world is ultra connected now. It's fine f
by viscanti 6y ago
The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis has been widely debunked. It feels right, so it keeps getting spread around as a fact.
The world is ultra connected now. It's fine for people to be bilingual and continue to communicate and respect their local history and culture. There's also a premium on being able to communicate wherever you go and with anyone you might meet. That's where English is already filling a dominant niche.
The concern that some countries have with children learning English (when it's not their native language), is that their children might also grow up being heavily influenced by American/British culture (as they'll grow up watching English TV shows, reading English books, etc). That's a legitimate concern, where it's difficult to decouple the language from the associated culture. That said, I think there's a value in being able to communicate with everyone else and those countries could do other things to either limit screen time or increase the amount of historical and cultural content they give to their kids (this seems mostly like a problem for people who just want to sit their kids in front of a laptop and hope for the best - active parenting and teaching of local culture seems effective).
- Tainnor 6y ago> The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis has been widely debunked. It feels right, so it keeps getting spread around as a fact. You say this as if there were consensus around that, but that's not true. The very strong, original formulation of Sapir-Whorf probably doesn't hold much water, but you'll still find enough linguists claiming that language influences thought nontrivially. But of course, you'll also find linguists arguing the opposite.
- ludamad 6y agoI think it is true in an obvious but meaningful sense, though - word choices available impact meaning. If it's idiomatic to use a colourful dramatic phrase, a normally benign saying has subtlety pushed towards different connotations in people's minds etc. Now, I think this is true in pockets. In the larger sense, our available linguistic tools continues to grow, and speakers have no taboos even playing with basic grammar for effect