ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an experiment that was designed originally to test the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis that the structure of a language conditions non-linguistic behaviour and thought. The general proposition that the language of a group is not functionally independent of nonlinguistic factors would certainly meet with little objection. Disagreements arise at the point where attempts are made to specify the nature and direction of this relation. A ‘linguistic response’ involves the oral production of speech by an informant while a ‘non-linguistic response’ refers to any other behaviour. Linguistic responses are the ‘same’ if they contain the same phonemes and morphemes in the same order. ‘Same’ or ‘different’ for the non-linguistic responses refers to the alternatives present in the experimental situation. The experiment focuses on the Athapascan-speaking Navaho of New Mexico and Arizona.
