Children's early conversations

Learning a language involves learning words, inflections, and constructions. But just as importantly, children need to figure out how to hold a conversation and how to tell stories. This video discusses the processes that are at work during that development.

[@sarabenzari7717]

To what extent is the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis correct? Because if I remember correctly, they posited that because a language doesn't have for example past tense, the people don't speak abt the past, or if they have a bajillion words for snow it means they see snow (and the world) differently than others, and this was heavily criticized. Maybe I'm confusing this with another hypothesis, but what I'm getting at is what exactly does this hypothesis state and do linguists agree?

[@MartinHilpert]

There is a strong version ("Your language determines what you can think") that is definitely not correct. For example, some languages have a color term that combines green and blue ("grue"), and we can easily explain that concept in English. There is a lot of evidence for a weaker version ("Your language has an influence on the way you think"). This relates to Dan Slobin's concept of "thinking-for-speaking" that I discuss in this video. Linguists continue to explore how strong Whorfian effects actually are. If you want to see some examples, you can turn to a video I made about language and color: ruclips.net/video/ggfMQ0Zuv6o/видео.html

[@sarabenzari7717]

Martin Hilpert so the hypothesis in the video refers to the weaker version then?

[@MartinHilpert]

@@sarabenzari7717 Yes!

[@sarabenzari7717]

Martin Hilpert alright thank you very much 😁

[@MartinHilpert]

Lera Boroditsky has done important work on Whorfian. Here is a link to a presentation of hers: ruclips.net/video/RKK7wGAYP6k/видео.html