| Presentation | 2016-12-18 [Invited Talk] The Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis and Japanology Yohtaro Takano, |
|---|---|
| PDF Download Page |  PDF download Page Link |
| Abstract(in Japanese) | (See Japanese page) |
| Abstract(in English) | In Japanology, it has been often claimed that the Japanese have difficulty in logical thinking because the Japanese language is illogical. An American psycholinguist, Alfred Bloom (1981, 1984), invoked the linguistic relativity hypothesis to claim that the Japanese and Chinese should be inferior to Westerners in their ability of scientific thinking because the Japanese and Chinese languages lack grammatical devices specialized in counterfactual and entification which is found in Indo-European languages, and presented experimental data that were purported to endorse this claim. The present speaker found a procedural flaw in Bloom’s experiment, reasoned that this flaw may have been responsible for the apparent better performance of the American college students than that of the Japanese and Chinese college students, and conducted an experiment proving that this reasoning was correct. |
| Keyword(in Japanese) | (See Japanese page) |
| Keyword(in English) | Japanology / linguistic relativity hypothesis / Sapir-Whorf hypothesis / Japanese language / thinking ability / counterfactual / entification |
| Paper # | TL2016-62 |
| Date of Issue | 2016-12-09 (TL) |
| Conference Information | |
| Committee | TL |
|---|---|
| Conference Date | 2016/12/16(3days) |
| Place (in Japanese) | (See Japanese page) |
| Place (in English) | Room 303/304/305, Building #8, Waseda University |
| Topics (in Japanese) | (See Japanese page) |
| Topics (in English) | Theme 1: Language and Learning, Theme 2: Co-creation in a place， Emergence of meaning |
| Chair | Masami Suzuki(KDDI Research, Inc.) |
| Vice Chair | Chiaki Kubomura(Yamano College of Aesthetics) |
| Secretary | Chiaki Kubomura(Ehime Univ.) |
| Assistant | Yasushi Tsubota(Kyoto Inst. of Tech.) / Nobuyuki Jincho(Waseda Univ.) |
| Paper Information | |
| Registration To | Technical Committee on Thought and Language |
|---|---|
| Language | ENG-JTITLE |
| Title (in Japanese) | (See Japanese page) |
| Sub Title (in Japanese) | (See Japanese page) |
| Title (in English) | [Invited Talk] The Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis and Japanology |
| Sub Title (in English) | Are Japanese Inferior in Scientific Thinking Ability Due to Their Native Language? |
| Keyword(1) | Japanology |
| Keyword(2) | linguistic relativity hypothesis |
| Keyword(3) | Sapir-Whorf hypothesis |
| Keyword(4) | Japanese language |
| Keyword(5) | thinking ability |
| Keyword(6) | counterfactual |
| Keyword(7) | entification |
| Keyword(8) | |
| 1st Author's Name | Yohtaro Takano |
| 1st Author's Affiliation | Meiji University(Meiji Univ) |
| Date | 2016-12-18 |
| Paper # | TL2016-62 |
| Volume (vol) | vol.116 |
| Number (no) | TL-368 |
| Page | pp.pp.121-125(TL), |
| #Pages | 5 |
| Date of Issue | 2016-12-09 (TL) |