Testing the Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis on the Examples of English and Russian

Download or read book Testing the Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis on the Examples of English and Russian written by Eva Skok Lamut and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The master's thesis is concerned with the linguistic relativity hypothesis, also known as the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which states that structural and lexical properties of a language not only reflect, but also influence how its speakers perceive the world around them (Miller 2009, 1). The hypothesis is tested empirically by examining whether structural differences between English and Russian are reflected in personality differences between English and Russian speakers, and whether the use of contrasting grammatical features in otherwise identical sentences affects their interpretation. The two psychological features tested are emotional expressivity and the locus of control, paired with their corresponding contrasting grammatical features consisting of the use of adjectives vs. emotive verbs to express emotion, and the prevalence of agentive vs. non-agentive constructions in the two languages, as delineated in the works of Anna Wierzbicka. It is therefore important to remember that the results of the study refer to her specific application of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis on English and Russian, and to the linguistic relativity hypothesis in general.