語言相對論

語言相對論（英語：linguistic relativity），有時也被稱為薩丕爾-沃夫假說（英語：Sapir–Whorf hypothesis）認為語言結構影響其使用者的世界觀或認知，因此人類的感知與思考模式與其所使用的語言相關。

該理論首先由語言學家兼人類學家愛德華·薩丕爾（Edward Sapir）及其學生本傑明·李·沃夫所提出，是一門關於人類語言的心理學、語言學假說。這項學說認為，人類的思考模式受到其使用語言的影響，因而對同一事物時可能會有不同的看法，不過這項學說引起了一些爭議，也招致了一些批評。基於以上爭議，後來產生不同的修正版本：其一於二次大戰前提出語言決定思想為強勢版本；其二於近代提倡，認為語言結構僅影響認知的溫和版本，介紹如下^[1]：

• 語言相對論的強勢版本，又稱為語言決定論，提出語言決定思考模式，故語言結構限制並決定其認知結構，此一版本已於現代普遍被認為是不正確的論述。^[2]
• 語言相對論的溫和版本，認為語言結構及使用可能影響思考模式及決策方式。該版本較受到相關實證研究結果的分析認可。^[3]

薩丕爾-沃夫假說一稱通常被認為是錯誤的，原因是兩位學者並未曾合著研究或以假說的形式陳述其論點。以上版本的區別也是由後續學者延伸發展。^[4][5]

現今有一些人造語言的發明因應而生，如邏輯語、道本語等。

語言決定論認為語言決定思考模式，不同語系的語言看待世界的方式都不一樣，也就呈現了各種語言彼此間的相對性，所以任何民族的語言都與其文化和生活環境的需要一起成長和改變。

歷史

語言相對論的概念首先由19世紀的兩位德國思想家，威廉·馮·洪堡以及約翰·戈特弗里德·赫爾德所提出，認為語言作為表現國家精神的方式。20世紀初兩位美國人類學家法蘭茲·鮑亞士與愛德華·薩丕爾也於1928年的美國語言學會^[6]支持這樣的概念，薩丕爾尤其反對語言決定論觀點。

薩丕爾的學生，本傑明·李·沃夫，在他發表語言差異影響人類認知與行為的相關觀察後，成為假說的主要之支持者。薩丕爾另一位學生，哈利·霍耶，引入薩丕爾-沃夫假說^[7]，儘管兩位學者從未正式推廣類似的理論。^[8]其中，強勢版本於1920年代由德國語言學家魏斯格貝爾持續發展。經羅傑·布朗和埃里克·勒納伯格進行了實驗，為了探究不同語言使用者，是否在辨別顏色程度上有所不同，使得沃夫的語言相對論成為可測試的假設。

其他領域

在流行文化中

姜峯楠的短篇小說《你一生的故事》（英文：Story of Your Life）提到了薩丕爾-沃夫假說；^{[來源請求]}2016年美國電影《天煞異降》根據《你一生的故事》改編上映。

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參閲

• 愛斯基摩語中關於雪的詞語
• 民族語言學
• 語文規劃
• 語言人類學
• 心理語言學
• 相對主義

外部連結

• Babies think before they speak says Harvard professor
• The Great Whorf Hypothesis Hoax by Dan Moonhawk Alford （頁面存檔備份，存於互聯網檔案館）.
• How Does Our Language Shape The Way We Think? （頁面存檔備份，存於互聯網檔案館）
• Effects of grammatical gender on human thought

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2. Ahearn, Laura M. Living language : an introduction to linguistic anthropology. Chichester, West Sussex, U.K. 2012: 69. ISBN 978-1-4443-4056-3. OCLC 729731177.
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