Editing Linguistic determinism (section)

=== Hopi ===
{{main|Hopi time controversy}}

Whorf's conclusion was largely based upon a close examination and extensive study of the Native American [[Hopi]] language spoken among natives of southwestern North America. During earlier years, Whorf published a number of essays in which he analyzed various linguistic aspects of Hopi. For example, a work called "An American Indian model of the universe" (1936) explores the implications of the Hopi verb system concerning the conception of space and time.

In the course of his research, Whorf noticed that Hopi and some other languages ([[Hebrew]], [[Aztec]], and [[Mayan languages|Maya]]) were built upon a different structure than that of English and many other languages which he called SAE ([[Standard Average European]]) languages. He discovered several significant features distinguishing Hopi from SAE languages which he used to continue formulating his concept of linguistic determinism.

For example, Hopi is a "timeless" language, whose verbal system lacks tenses. The assessment of time is different from the SAE linear temporal view of past, present, and future because it indicates the event's time duration.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Hopi language|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hopi-language|access-date=2021-05-12|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en|archive-date=2021-01-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210123055326/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hopi-language|url-status=live}}</ref>  Whorf observed that sense of time varies with each observer:

{{blockquote|The timeless Hopi verb does not distinguish between the present, past and future of the event itself but must always indicate what type of validity the speaker intends the statement to have.<ref name="Whorf, B.L. 1956 pp. 217">Whorf, B.L. (1956). "Science and Linguistics". In Carroll, J.B. Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. pp. 217. {{ISBN|0-262-73006-5}}</ref>}}

Hopi time is non-dimensional and cannot be counted or measured in typical SAE language measurement, i.e. the Hopi will not say "I stayed six days," but "I left on the sixth day." In the Hopi perception of time, it is crucial to determine whether an event can be warranted to have occurred, to be occurring, or to be expected to occur. Hopi grammatical categories signify a view of the world as an ongoing process, where time is not divided into fixed segments so that certain things recur, e.g. minutes, evenings, or days. The linguistic structure of SAE languages, on the other hand, gives its speakers a more fixed, objectified and measurable understanding of time and space, where they distinguish between countable and uncountable objects and view time as a linear sequence of past, present, and future.

The Hopi language also contains a verb system which, unlike SAE languages, can make a single-action verb into a repeated/prolonged action verb with an extension of the word. For example, "tíri" translates to "he gives a start" but "tirírita" becomes "he is trembling".<ref name=":3" />

Whorf argues that since thought is expressed and transmitted through language, it follows that a differently structured language must shape thought along its lines, thus influencing perception. Consequently, a Hopi speaker who perceives the world through the medium of his language must see reality through the patterns laid down by its linguistic structure.

An outspoken critic of linguistic determinism, cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker, known for his alignment with Chomsky's universalist ideas, disagrees strongly with Whorf's analysis. Pinker argued that Whorf relied too heavily on linguistic data alone to draw conclusions regarding the relationship between language and thought. In his book, The Language Instinct, Pinker dismisses linguistic determinism as a "conventional absurdity," instead proposing a universal language of thought – termed Mentalese.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|last=Pinker|first=Steven|title=The Language Instinct|publisher=William Morrow and Company|year=1994|isbn=0-688-12141-1|location=New York|pages=55–82}}</ref>

He asserts that Whorf was completely mistaken in his characterization of the Hopi as having no concept of time and that the Hopi do in fact have tense, units of time, temporal metaphors, and a complex system of time-keeping.<ref name=":2" />