Hopi time controversy

The Hopi time controversy is the academic debate about whether the Hopi concept of time is an example of linguistic relativity or not. The debate originated in the 1940s when linguist Benjamin Lee Whorf argued that the Hopi conceptualized time differently than the average English speaker, and that this difference correlated with grammatical differences in the language. Whorf argued that Hopi has "no words, grammatical forms, construction or expressions that refer directly to what we call 'time'."} and concluded that the Hopi had "no general notion or intuition of time as a smooth flowing continuum in which everything in the universe proceeds at equal rate, out of a future, through the present, into a past". Whorf used the Hopi concept of time as a primary example of his concept of linguistic relativity.

Whorf's views fell out of favor in linguistics and anthropology in the 1960s and in 1983 the German linguist Ekkehart Malotki published a 600 page study of the grammar of time in the Hopi language, claiming to have finally refuted Whorf's claims about the language. Malotki's treatise gave hundred's of examples of Hopi words and grammatical forms referring to concepts of temporality. Malotki's central claim was that the Hopi did indeed conceptualize time as structured in terms of a spatial progression from past, through present into the future. Many took this as the final nail in the coffin of the linguistic relativity hypothesis. Steven Pinker a well known critic of Whorf and the concept of linguistic relativity concludes that "Malotki's presentation and argumentation are devastating".

Subsequently the study of linguistic relativity was revived using new approaches in the 1990s, and Malotki's study came under criticism from relativist linguists and anthropologists, who did not consider that the study in fact invalidated Whorf's claims. The main issue of the debate regards the interpretation of Whorf's original claims about Hopi, and what it was exactly that he was claiming made Hopi different from Standard Average European language. Recent studies in cognitive science have found evidence that there are significant differences between how speakers of different languages conceptualize time, although not necessarily in the way Whorf claimed for the Hopi. Specifically it has been shown that some cultural groups conceptualize the movement of time in terms of directionality opposite of what is usual for speakers of English and other Indo-European languages, in which the past is equated with forwards directionality, and the past with backwards. It has also been found that not all languages have a grammatical category of tense, instead using combinations of adverbs and grammatical aspect to locate events in time. The general consensus is that Malotki was right in arguing that it is a universal of human cognition to conceptualize time metaphorically through an analogy with space, although some studies have questioned this.

References

Bittner, Maria (2005). "Future discourse in a tenseless language". Journal of Semantics. 12 (4): 339–388. doi:10.1093/jos/ffh029. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Boroditsky, L. (2000). "Metaphoric structuring: Understanding time through spatial metaphors". Cognition. 75: 1–28.

Bybee, J. L.; Perkins, R.; Pagliuca, W. (1994). The evolution of grammar: Tense, aspect and modality in the languages of the world. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Carroll, John B. (ed.) (1956). "Introduction". Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf. Cambridge, Mass.: Technology Press of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. pp. 1–34. ISBN 978-0-262-73006-8. {{cite book}}: |first= has generic name (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Comrie, Bernard (1984). "Review of Ekkehart Malotki, Hopi Time". Australian Journal of Linguistics. 4: 131–3. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Comrie, Bernard (1985). "Tense". Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-28138-5. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Dahl, Ø. (1995). "When the future comes from behind: Malagasy and other time concepts and some consequences for communication". International Journal of Intercultural Relations. 19: 197–209. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Dinwoodie, David W. (2006). "Time and the Individual in Native North America". In Sergei Kan; Pauline Turner Strong; Raymond Fogelson (eds.). New Perspectives on Native North America: Cultures, Histories, And Representations. U of Nebraska. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Evans, Vyvyan (2004). The Structure of Time: Language, meaning and temporal cognition. (Human Cognitive Processing series). John Benjamins. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Gentner, D. (2001). "Spatial metaphors in temporal reasoning". In M. Gattis (ed.). Spatial schemas and abstract thought. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. pp. 203–222.

Gentner, D.; Mutsumi, I.; Boroditsky, L. (2002). "As time goes by: Evidence for two systems in processing space > time metaphors". Language and Cognitive Processes. 17: 537–565. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Heynick, Frank (1983). "From Einstein to Whorf: Space, time, matter, and reference frames in physical and linguistic relativity". Semiotica. 45: 35–64. doi:10.1515/semi.1983.45.1-2.35. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Hopi Dictionary Project, (University of Arizona Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology) (1998). Hopi dictionary: Hopìikwa Lavàytutuveni: A Hopi-English dictionary of the Third Mesa dialect with an English-Hopi finder list and a sketch of Hopi grammar. Tucson, Arizona: University of Arizona Press. ISBN 0-8165-1789-4. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Jeanne, LaVerne Masayesva (1978). hdl.handle.net/1721.1/16325 Aspects of Hopi grammar. MIT: Doctoral dissertation. {{cite book}}: Check |url= value (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Kalectaca, Milo (1978). Lessons in Hopi. Tucson, Arizona: University of Arizona Press. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Leavitt, John (2011). Linguistic Relativities: Language Diversity and Modern Thought. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-76782-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Lee, Penny (1991). "Whorf's Hopi tensors: Subtle articulators in the language/thought nexus?". Cognitive Linguistics. 2 (2): 123–148. doi:10.1515/cogl.1991.2.2.123. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Lee, Penny (1996). The Whorf Theory Complex — A Critical Reconstruction. John Benjamins. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Lucy, John A. (1997). "Linguistic Relativity". Annual Review of Anthropology. 26: 291–312. doi:10.1146/annurev.anthro.26.1.291. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Lucy, John A. (1992a). "Grammatical Categories and Cognition: A Case Study of the Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis" (Document). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. {{cite document}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Lucy, John A. (1992b). "Language Diversity and Thought: A Reformulation of the Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis" (Document). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. {{cite document}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Malotki, Ekkehart (1983). Werner Winter (ed.). "Hopi Time: A Linguistic Analysis of the Temporal Concepts in the Hopi Language". Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs. 20. Berlin, New York, Amsterdam: Mouton Publishers. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Sweetser, Eve (2006). "With the Future Behind Them: Convergent Evidence From Aymara Language and Gesture in the Crosslinguistic Comparison of Spatial Construals of Time". Cognitive Science. 30: 1–49. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Pinker, Steven (1994). "The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language" (Document). Perennial. {{cite document}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Pinker, Steven (2007). "The Stuff of Thought: Language as a window into human nature" (Document). Penguin Books. {{cite document}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Pütz, Martin; Verspoor, Marjolyn, eds. (2000). Explorations in linguistic relativity. John Benjamins Publishing Company. ISBN 978-90-272-3706-4. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Reines, Maria Francisca; Prinze, Jesse (2009). "Reviving Whorf: The Return of Linguistic Relativity". Philosophy Compass. 4 (6): 1022–1032. doi:10.1111/j.1747-9991.2009.00260.x. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Sinha, Chris; Sinha, Vera D.; Zinken, Jörg; Sampaio, Wany (2011). "When time is not space: The social and linguistic construction of time intervals and temporal event relations in an Amazonian culture" (PDF). Language and Cognition. 3 (1): 137–169. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Smith (2008). "Time With and Without Tense". Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory. 75: 227–249. doi:10.1007/978-1-4020-8354-9_10. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |First= ignored (|first= suggested) (help)

Whorf, Benjamin Lee (1946). "The Hopi language, Toreva dialect". Linguistic Structures of Native America. Viking Fund Publications in Anthropology 6. New York: Viking Fund. pp. 158–183. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |editorfirst= ignored (|editor-first= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |editorlast= ignored (|editor-last= suggested) (help)

Whorf, Benjamin Lee (1956a) [1935]. "The punctual and segmentative aspects of verbs in Hopi.". In Carroll, J. B. (ed.). Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf. Cambridge, Mass.: Technology Press of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. pp. 51–55. ISBN 978-0-262-73006-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Whorf, Benjamin Lee (1956b) [1936?]. "An American Indian model of the universe". In Carroll, J. B. (ed.). Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf. Cambridge, Mass.: Technology Press of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. pp. 57–64. ISBN 978-0-262-73006-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Whorf, Benjamin Lee (1956c) [1937]. "Discussion of Hopi linguistics". In Carroll, J. B. (ed.). Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf. Cambridge, Mass.: Technology Press of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. pp. 102–111. ISBN 978-0-262-73006-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Whorf, Benjamin Lee (1956d) [1936]. "A linguistic consideration of thinking in primitive communities". In Carroll, J. B. (ed.). Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf. Cambridge, Mass.: Technology Press of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. pp. 65–86. ISBN 978-0-262-73006-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Whorf, Benjamin Lee (1956e) [1939]. "The relation of habitual thought and behavior to language". In Carroll, J. B. (ed.). Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf. Cambridge, Mass.: Technology Press of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. pp. 134–159. ISBN 978-0-262-73006-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Whorf, Benjamin Lee (1956f) [1940a]. "Science and linguistics". In Carroll, J. B. (ed.). Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf. Cambridge, Mass.: Technology Press of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. pp. 207–219. ISBN 978-0-262-73006-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Whorf, Benjamin Lee (1956g) [1940b]. "Linguistics as an exact science". In Carroll, J. B. (ed.). Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf. Cambridge, Mass.: Technology Press of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. pp. 220–232. ISBN 978-0-262-73006-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)