ABSTRACT
Language is therefore a major aspect of human freedom. Animals, then, are linguistically limited, but all normal humans acquire at least one language, seemingly without conscious thought. Benjamin Lee Whorf was not an academic but a fire-inspection engineer. He wrote intuitive and enthusiastic essays, and failed to formulate clear testable hypotheses. Consequently, there has been considerable discussion on what exactly he meant by his claims – though they undoubtedly cover much more than the common observation that some cultures have more sub-divisions than others for particular vocabulary areas. Whorf's work is therefore more notable for the discussion it has generated, than for its ‘findings’: there are as many interpretations of Whorf as there are people who have examined his assertions. Probes into apparently sexist language have recently provided support for Whorf's claim that covert language categories can affect a person's thought.
