LING 115 - UNIT 10 LINGUISTIC
RELATIVITY EXAM QUESTIONS AND
ANSWERS
The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis - Correct Answers -language exerts major influence on
way we perceive outside world
Two ways language and culture may be related to and influence each other - Correct
Answers -(1) our language constrains us to see the world in certain ways, and our
lifestyles develop in special ways because of the influence of language on our
perception of the world; (2) differences in our language grow out of differences which
have been established by different ways of life (different cultures); generalization:
people experience world in distinct ways because of differences in their languages
which act as a filter onto the world
How can people of different cultures have a different perception of the same 'reality'? -
Correct Answers -different cultures result from different life-styles, and the languages
spoken by members of different cultural groups have specialized vocabularies which
relate to the environment they live in (EX: Inuit people have many words for the snow;
Arabic speakers in Saudi Arabia have many words for camels and horses); existence of
specialized vocabularies will result in speakers of these languages paying more
attention to differences in snow, horses, etc.
T/F: ALL languages have words which are difficult to translate into other languages. -
Correct Answers -True (EX: German: Gemuetlichkeit 'niceness/warmness'; suggests
that speakers of different languages have different sets of concepts established in their
minds; words often express customs, objects and institutions which occur only in certain
cultures (EX: birthday party, bar mitzvah, fraternity/sorority house, hazing, yoyo, pogo
stick, etc.)
T/F: Cultures need not even be dramatically different for there to be words which cannot
be simply translated. - Correct Answers -True (EX: Hudson argues that brown, monkey,
chair, jug, carpet do not have direct single word equivalents in French)
Semantic Relativity - Correct Answers -type of variability coined by Hudson where
languages differ in that the ideas and concepts which they contain are actually different
How far-reaching is semantic relativity? - Correct Answers -German doesn't really have
any additional concepts which are not present in English, German simply combines the
common basic concepts in a way which doesn't occur in English; if all apparent
differences in the range of concepts present indifferent languages could be explained in
this way, it might be very limited and languages might be taken to share a common
RELATIVITY EXAM QUESTIONS AND
ANSWERS
The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis - Correct Answers -language exerts major influence on
way we perceive outside world
Two ways language and culture may be related to and influence each other - Correct
Answers -(1) our language constrains us to see the world in certain ways, and our
lifestyles develop in special ways because of the influence of language on our
perception of the world; (2) differences in our language grow out of differences which
have been established by different ways of life (different cultures); generalization:
people experience world in distinct ways because of differences in their languages
which act as a filter onto the world
How can people of different cultures have a different perception of the same 'reality'? -
Correct Answers -different cultures result from different life-styles, and the languages
spoken by members of different cultural groups have specialized vocabularies which
relate to the environment they live in (EX: Inuit people have many words for the snow;
Arabic speakers in Saudi Arabia have many words for camels and horses); existence of
specialized vocabularies will result in speakers of these languages paying more
attention to differences in snow, horses, etc.
T/F: ALL languages have words which are difficult to translate into other languages. -
Correct Answers -True (EX: German: Gemuetlichkeit 'niceness/warmness'; suggests
that speakers of different languages have different sets of concepts established in their
minds; words often express customs, objects and institutions which occur only in certain
cultures (EX: birthday party, bar mitzvah, fraternity/sorority house, hazing, yoyo, pogo
stick, etc.)
T/F: Cultures need not even be dramatically different for there to be words which cannot
be simply translated. - Correct Answers -True (EX: Hudson argues that brown, monkey,
chair, jug, carpet do not have direct single word equivalents in French)
Semantic Relativity - Correct Answers -type of variability coined by Hudson where
languages differ in that the ideas and concepts which they contain are actually different
How far-reaching is semantic relativity? - Correct Answers -German doesn't really have
any additional concepts which are not present in English, German simply combines the
common basic concepts in a way which doesn't occur in English; if all apparent
differences in the range of concepts present indifferent languages could be explained in
this way, it might be very limited and languages might be taken to share a common
