从英汉性别语言再议萨丕尔-沃尔夫假说

Rethinking of Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis from the Perspective of English and Chinese Gender Language

萨丕尔-沃尔夫假说的核心内容是思维和语言的相互关系问题。萨丕尔和沃尔夫两人并未明确提出语言决定思维,但肯定了语言对思维的影响作用。"辩证统一"的哲学理论认为语言和思维是相互矛盾但又密不可分的,是辩证统一的关系。英语性别语言和汉语性别语言这两种不同的语言的形成和变化说明思维决定语言,而性别语言的改观也对社会思维产生了深刻的影响,即"思维决定语言,语言影响思维",有力否定了语言决定思维的论断。

The interrelation of language and thought is the core content of Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis.From the statement given by Sapir and Whorf,they did not claim definitely that language determines thought,but they did think that language has an influence on thought to a certain extent.From the philosophical perspective of dialectic unity,language and thought is both contradictory and inseparable.The formation and change of English gender language and Chinese gender language illustrate that thought determines language,and the improvement of gender language also has an impact on social thought.In other words,language is determined by thought,not the otherwise.