On Whorfian socioeconomics

IF 0.4 4区 文学 0 LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS
Thomas B. Pepinsky
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引用次数: 1

Abstract

Abstract:Whorfian socioeconomics is an emerging interdisciplinary field of study that holds that linguistic structures explain differences in beliefs, values, and opinions across communities. This field, which draws on linguistic relativity but extends it radically, holds that linguistic features are a fundamental explanation for variation in human behavior. This essay provides a conceptual overview and methodological critique of Whorfian socioeconomics, with a particular emphasis on empirical studies that document a correlation between the presence or absence of a linguistic feature in a survey respondent's language and their responses to survey questions. Using the universe of linguistic features from the World atlas of language structures online and a wide array of responses from the World Values Survey, I show that such an approach produces highly statistically significant correlations in a majority of analyses, irrespective of the theoretical plausibility linking linguistic features to respondent beliefs and behavior. I show how two simple and well-understood statistical fixes can more accurately reflect uncertainty in these analyses, and use them to replicate two prominent findings in Whorfian socioeconomics. The essay concludes by reflecting on the common methodological challenges facing linguists and other social scientists interested in nonlinguistic effects of linguistic structures.
关于沃尔夫的社会经济学
摘要:沃尔夫社会经济学是一个新兴的跨学科研究领域,它认为语言结构解释了社区间信仰、价值观和观点的差异。这一领域借鉴了语言相对论,但从根本上扩展了它,认为语言特征是对人类行为变化的基本解释。本文提供了对沃尔夫社会经济学的概念概述和方法论批判,特别强调了实证研究,这些研究记录了调查对象语言中语言特征的存在或缺失与他们对调查问题的回答之间的相关性。通过使用在线语言结构世界地图集的语言特征和世界价值观调查的广泛回应,我表明,无论语言特征与被调查者的信仰和行为之间的理论合理性如何,这种方法在大多数分析中产生了高度统计上显著的相关性。我展示了两个简单且易于理解的统计修正如何更准确地反映这些分析中的不确定性,并用它们来复制沃尔夫社会经济学中的两个重要发现。本文最后反思了语言学家和其他对语言结构的非语言效应感兴趣的社会科学家所面临的共同方法论挑战。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
1.00
自引率
16.70%
发文量
19
期刊介绍: Language Problems and Language Planning is published in cooperation with the Center for Research and Documentation on World Language Problems. This international multi-lingual journal publishes articles primarily on political, sociological, and economic aspects of language and language use. It is especially concerned with relationships between and among language communities, particularly in international contexts, and in the adaptation, manipulation, and standardization of language for international use.
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