Since the Eskimo language has many words for snow, the strongest form of the Whorfian hypothesis maintains Europeans could not understand snow as the Eskimo do. How could Europeans gain an appreciation for snow somewhat akin to the Eskimo and what would the Whorfian hypothesis have to say that?
What will be an ideal response?
ANSWER:
If the Whorfian hypothesis were absolutely correct in its strongest form, it should not be possible for the Europeans to understand snow in the same fashion as Eskimos. However, the research does not support this strong form of the Whorfian hypothesis. Rather, it suggests that language merely influences perception, meaning language helps to shape or influence perceptions, but it does not control how we understand the world around us.
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So, although Eskimos have words that stand for different types/conditions of snow, Europeans could likely learn to discriminate the differences and similarities of the snows and reflect that through adjectives or nouns in their own European language.
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