The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
When we acquire language, we acquire ways of thinking – conceptual systems or grids – which we don’t notice consciously because they just feel natural to us. It’s a bit like viewing the world through a particular pair of spectacles that we’ve got used to wearing. And these spectacles are our culture.
—Angela Goodard and Lindsey Meân Patterson, Language and Gender (6)
Required Readings
- Mills, “Models of Language and Text: Implicit and Explicit,” Feminist Stylistics
- Bing, “Penguins Can’t Fly and Women Don’t Count: Language and Thought”
- Housekeeping Monthly, “The good wife’s guide”
- Elgin, Preface, Native Tongue
- LeGuin, “Introducing Myself,” Readercon 7 (1994)
- Hardman, “Joanna Russ’ How to Suppress Women’s Writing as Student Observation Guide”