The Language Hoax

Why the World Looks the Same in Any Language

De: John H. McWhorter

Narrado por: John McWhorter

Japanese has a term that covers both green and blue. Russian has separate terms for dark and light blue. Does this mean that Russians perceive these colors differently from Japanese people? Does language control and limit the way we think?

This short, opinionated audiobook addresses the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which argues that the language we speak shapes the way we perceive the world. Linguist John McWhorter argues that while this idea is mesmerizing, it is plainly wrong. It is language that reflects culture and worldview, not the other way around. The fact that a language has only one word for eat, drink, and smoke doesn't mean its speakers don't process the difference between food and beverage, and those who use the same word for blue and green perceive those two colors just as vividly as others do. McWhorter shows not only how the idea of language as a lens fails but also why we want so badly to believe it: We're eager to celebrate diversity by acknowledging the intelligence of peoples who may not think like we do. Though well intentioned, our belief in this idea poses an obstacle to a better understanding of human nature and even trivializes the people we seek to celebrate. The reality--that all humans think alike--provides another, better way for us to acknowledge the intelligence of all peoples.

©2014 Oxford University Press (P)2015 Audible Inc.

Great book! Well-read by the author.

A well-researched, well-argued book about the relationship between language and thought. Delightfully narrated by the author.

Intetesting

I enjoyed this because my education included Sapir-Whorf. This was a. interesting take on that hypothesis.

Another great McWhorter book

My favorite writer on language. He never fails to illuminate. Chomsky, eat your heart out!

A linguistic masterpiece

I loved this book from A to Z. This is a linguistic magnficient masterpiece. 👍

A short book but it could be even shorter.

The message of the book is quite simple, so the book could be shorter. I would have add more info in the book besides debunking of worfian hypothes. Narration and writing style are top notch.

Run Whorfians Run!

John McWhorter produces yet another fantastic book. To date he is my favorite for his clarity, humor, directness, knowledge, ability to teach and logical views. I can’t get enough.

A look at the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

In this book, John McWhorter takes on the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, with vigor and enthusiasm, and his usual excellent research.

The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis says, basically, that language shapes the way we see and understand the world. One example, a fairly basic one, is that Japanese has one word that identifies both blue and green, while Russian has one word for dark blue and another word for light blue. Does this mean the Japanese can't see different shades of blue and green as clearly as Russians can?

No. The Japanese can see these colors just as well; they just describe them differently.

A more complex example is verb tenses. English has a future tense, a verb tense we use to refer to the future. "I will go out tomorrow." Many other languages, do too, but also many other languages don't have a future tense. Does this mean the speakers of those languages can't plan for the future?

No. Once again, they can anticipate the future, refer to it, plan for it. They just use other means of doing so, often context-dependent.

McWhorter explains this much better than I can, and takes on the idea not just as bad linguistics, but as bad linguistics that, while it originated in a desire to recognize the worth of non-Western or "primitive" cultures, has a pernicious tendency to promote condescension towards other cultures, and a certain ethnocentrism, accepting our own language and culture as obviously the standard.

While not having the lightness and well-used, intentional silliness that enlivens some of his other works, he makes excellent, informative, and entertaining use of the differences among languages in the course of explaining what he sees as wrong in much Sapir-Whorf analysis. And it should be noted, in this context, that English, far from being the obviously normal language we who speak it as our native tongue tend to assume, is in many ways downright weird, an outlier in many ways.

The same, of course, is true of other languages. Each language has evolved on its own path, and the changes are often happenstance, not response to anything to do with the environment of their speakers. Culture and language aren't all that closely related.

It's a fascinating listen, and well worth your time.

I bought this audiobook.

Persuasive because of its skill and graciousness

I have learned so much from McWhorter, and not just about language, but about using the tools of persuasion. He could have buried all Whorfianism and his fans would have followed him. But he carefully distinguishes the good ideas proposed by the movement from the popular conclusions drawn from its work. He opens his book by calling his work a manifesto, but he doesn’t have that grandiose tone. He’s patient and clear.

A magnificent work

Professor McWhorter is brilliant in his evaluation of the Whorf Sapir hypotheses that language shapes human thought within the culture in which each individual is a part. I just miss his performance at the Great Courses where he is totally oral, chaotic and wonderful. But here we have a book and the formality of a book. Yet he not only recites his own book. The manifesto, as he calls himself, has his personal charm. I recommend and much everything he writes and even more his courses.

Short and sweet

I just finished “The Language Hoax” by John McWhorter. It’s short and sweet (5.5 hour listen on Audible). His thesis is that spoken language does not impact thinking or cultural values in a meaningful way, and despite the wide variety of grammars and vocabularies across cultures, the thought that gets encoded is the same. Popular conceptions like some cultures are more likely to prepare for the future based off of the presence or a sense of future tenses, or that some cultures are more likely to be skeptical because of the presence or absence of epistemological grammar are his targets.

To make his case, he draws from a wide variety of languages which often have entertaining and unexpected quirks. The wide survey across a very broad spectrum of languages alone makes it worth the price of admission.

The author is a professional linguist and as such, the quality of the prose is reflected in the book. The author is very gracious towards his opponents. Nonetheless, self-styled sophisticates who see too many patterns in noise, who congratulate themselves because of a surface level knowledge of other cultures or languages, and who fail to see their own hypocrisy in ivory-tower xenocentrism get taken down a notch.

The book is concise, cogent, easy to digest, and sociologically relevant.

As other reviews have noticed, this book is better listened to than read so you can savor the author’s enunciation of obscure languages a casual reader would have no chance of pronouncing correctly.