The Relation of Habitual

Thought and Behavior to

Language
Benjamin Lee Whorf

Human beings do not rive in the objective worrd alone, nor alone
in the
world of social activity as ordinariiy understood, but are very
much ar
the mercy of the particurar ranguage which has become the
medium of
expression for their society. It is quite an ilrusion to imagine
that one
adjusts to reality essentialry without the use of ranguage and
that
language is merely an incidental means of solving ,p..i-fi. -problems
of
communication or reflection. The fact of the matter is that the .real
world' is to a large extent unconsciously built up on the language
habits
of the group. . . We see and hear and otherwisi e.rperience-v.r! turg.ry
as we do because the language habits of our communrty preaisp-ose
certain choices of interpretation.
Edward Sapir

There will probably be.gen^eral assenr to the proposition that an

accepred
pattern of using words is often prior to certain lines of thinking
and forms
of behavior, but he who assents often sees in such a statement nothins
more than a platituditrous recognition of the hypnotic ;";;;";7
philosophical and learned terminology on the one hand-or
of caichwords,
slogans, and rallying cries on the other. To see only thus
far is to miss the
point of one of the important inteiconnections which sapir
saw between
language, culture, and psychology, and succincrly eipressed
introductory quotation. It is not so much in. these speciar uses
in the
of language
as in its constanr ways o[ arranging data and its most
ordinary .u.r'youy
analysis of phenomena that we need to recognize rhe influence
it has on
other activities, cultural and personal

source:'The Relaiion of Habitual rhoughr anc Beh:vior to Lansuase,, in

carroil,
J. B. (ed. and intro.) (1956) Language, Thought, cnd Reariry; siecied'tirttigs
oJ'
Benjamin Lee lt/horf (Cambridge, MA; MiT press), pp. lj4_59 (rhis
cbapreJwas
written in 1939).
AAA
++J

THE NAME OF THE SITUATION
iii
i,i
AS AFFECTING BEHAVIOR
:.: ;
I came in touch with,an asp.ect o[this pioblem
before I had studied under
Dr sapir, and in a fierd usuary considered
remote from linguistics. It was in
the course of my professional work for
a fire inrrrrun". in *r,i"t,
I undertook the task oIanalyzingmany hundreds "o'n'p"ny,
of reports of circumsrances
surroundi.ng the start of fires, and in
sorne cases, of eiplosions. tvty
was directed roward.purely physical
conditions, ,u"h u, d;";ir. "o"tysrs
presence or lack of air spaces berween wiring,
metal ffues *;ol;;;k, .t"., uno
Indeed it"rd
the results were presented in these terms.
was undertaken with no
thought that any other significances wourd
or courd be reveared. But in due
course it became evidenr rhar nor only
a physical situation q;;if;.r, Uut
the meaning of that situation to peopte,
,uus ionretimes a factor, through the
behavior of the people, in the siart'of the
fire. And this factor of meaning
was crearest when it was a ringuistic
meaning, residing in the name or the
linguistic description commonly appried
to the situatlon. rnur, u.ouno u
siorage of what are called 'gasoline drums,'
t},e, rhat is' great care will be exercised; while around will tend. to a certain
behavior
a storage of what are
called 'empty gasoline drums,' ir wilr tend
ro be different - careless, with
liitle repression of smoking or of rossing cigaretre
stubs about. yet the
'enpty'drums are perhaps the more dange'rous,
since they.ontain e.xprosive
vapor' Ph-vsically rhe situation is hazardous,
bur the linguistic analysis
according to regular anal-ogy musr employ
the word
inevitabiy suggests tack of hazard-'The word 'empty, Lmpty,, which
lingunric palrerns: (l) as a virtual synonym
is used in rrvo
for .nuli ona ,oiA, n.g",i*,
inert" (2) applied in.anarysis of ptrysicat siruations
wirhout reeard to,
e'9.' vapor, liquid vestiges. or stray rubbish.
in the contain... t. r-iiuurion
. is named in one patrern (2) and thl name is then 'acted. out'. or .rived up to,
inanother (1), this being a general formula for
the linguistic condirionins
evusrlrvrlr'E of
vr
behavior into hazardous forms.
In a wood distilration prant the metal stills were insurated with
a mirror held up to our own.
composirion prepared rrom limestone end
called at the olant .snun
linesione'' No artempr was made ro prorecr
,rrir ."t..irs';.; ;...it;;
.ear of rhe conracr of ffane. Atler a
ieriod use, the fire below one of the
stiils spr:ad to the 'rimesrone,' which to evervone's
great surprise burned
vrgorously. Exoosure ro acecic acid fumes
from the stilis had converred oart
oi the .iinestone (calcium carbonate) to calcium acerate.
This when heated in
a fire decomposes, forming inffarnmable
acerone. Benavior that rolerared iire
clcse :o.i;e .:cr'..r'inS .v:s ,lr<.lucei l.:.. ,_rs. .-rf-
ihij narrj ..!i;:r;s:.,_nc_.. y.i:ich
bcc:use ii ends iu 's!oie' inp.iies nc;_c,>,nbusribiiiii..
.. .
Sucir' exampies, which
- couid be greatly multipried. wilr suffice to show hor,v
the cue ro a cerrain line of behavior is often
liuen uy the analogies of rhe
linguistic formula in which the situarion is spoien
of, and by rvhich ro some
Benjanin Lee Ll/horf +45
degree it is analyzed, classified, and allotted its place in rhat world which
is 'to a.larse extent unconsciously builr up on the language'habits,of
the group.' And we always assume thar the linguistic analysis made by our
group reflects realiry better than it does.
GRAMfuIATICAL PATTERNS AS
INTERPRETATIONS OF EXPER.IENCE
The linguistic materiar in..the above exampres is limited to singre
words,
phrases, and patterns of limited range. one cannof study
the behavioral
compulsiveness of such materiar without suspecting a much
more far-
reaching compulsion from rarge-scale patterning of grammatical
categories,
surh as piurality, gencer and similar crassificationi (animate, inanimate,
etc.), tenses, voices, and other verb forms, classifications of the
type of .parts
of speech,' and the matter of.whether a given experience is denoied
by a ulit
morpheme, an inflecred word, or a syntacticar combination. A
category such
as number (singular vs. plural) is an attempted. interpretarion
oia whore
large order of experience, virtua[y of the world or of nature;
it attemprs ro
say how experience is to be segmented, *'hat experience is to
be called .one,
and what 'several.' Bur the difficulty of appraising such a far-reaching
influence is great because of its backgrouna chu*cter, because
of the
difficulty of sranding aside from our own language, rvhich is a habit
and a
cultural non est disputandum, and scrutinizing it objectively. And
if we take a
very dissimiiar language, this language becimes a part
of nature, and we
even do to ir what we have alread.y done to narure. we
tend to think in our
own lauguage-in order ro eramine the exotic ianguage. or we
find rhe task of
unraveling the pureiy morphological intricacies so gigantic that
it seems to
absorb all else. Yet the problem; though difficult, is feasible;
and the best
approach is through an exotic language, for in irs study we are at
long rast
pushed willy-nilly out of our ruts. Then we find that the
exotic language is a
In my study of the Hopi language, what I nolv see as an opportunity
work on this probiem was first thrust upon me before I was cle'arly
to
aware of
the problern. The seerninglv endless task of d.escribin_e the
morpholo_ey did
fiaally end. Yer it ivas evident, especially in the light of Sapir's lectuies
on
Navaho, thar rhe description of the ranguage rvas Far irom complete.
I knew for example the morphorogicar formarion of prurals, but nor how to
use piurals. It was evident rhat the cate-eoq/ of pluril in Hopi
was not rhe
:,-u,rc :h::g as ;r: Fngli:ii. Fre:ch. or Gen:an. Cer:ain thinss
thai ,vere
plural in these lan-euages wele singuiar in Hopi. The phase of invesrigauon
which now began consumed nearly two more vears.
The work began to assume the character of a comparison between Hopi
and western European languages. It also became evid.ent that even the
 .\c.q.tun oI ttubrtual-Tharrght
and Bchavio, to Languoge
grammar
of Hopi bore a relation-,to Hopi culture,
and the grammar of
w* : E u,oo.u
l::r,f
l"'J:j."#, that the ,interrerarion
appeared :{
::_:i^ :l_",.brought in ;,- n, cur tu re. A nd
iior" rarge subsum-",t";rt ili t
experience by language, such as
ou, J*n teFms .time,, .space,, .substance,,
and'matter.' since, with respect to,r,"-ir"it,
difference between Enelish, fr.o"n, compared, there is little
G"rJar,l, ott", European languages
with thd posstble (bit doubtfuu' ;;;;;
Indo-European,.I have
of Barto-sravic and.non-
lyn a i1,ir"l;;;;"
or 'Standard Average Europeaa., inro one group caled SAE,
That portion of the whole
.investigation here to be reported may be
summed up in two questions: (l)
Are:our own concepts of .time,, .space,,
and'matter'given insubstantialry tte
sa-e ro.- byexperience to all men,
or are they in part conditioned ty tne
(2) Are there traceabre affinities
,t*"iu." of particular languages?
b.i*;;;
and (b) large-scale lingursfic patterns? i"iiri,"."r and behaviorar norms
...
lr._vR4lrrY AND NUMERATTON rN
SAE AND HOPI
In our language, that is SAE, plurality
and cardinal numbers are applied in
two ways: !o real OIT* and imaginary
perceptible spatial aggregates
pl;;. O;;;;;,"rt,r,.r,
.,.1:.,t,
'!en and metaphorical aggregates. We say
men' and also 'ten days.' Tin men either
are or could be objectively
perceived as ten, ten in one group
perceptionl - ten men on a street corner,
for instance' But 'ren aays' cannot
i. our"",iu.ry
only one day, today; the other nine (or .-oi.r"*.
"*p..i.n".a.il"
ur, ten) are something conjured
ien "".o
up from memory or imagination' if
be as an 'imaginary,'
d;;;" regarded as a group it must
menralry_ constructed
;;";p. whence comes this menral
pattero? Just as in the case.of the
fire-car,ri"ng ...orr, from the fact thar
our
language confuses the two different
situationi has but one pattern for both.
when we speak of 'tea steps forward,
ten strokes on a bell,, or any similarly
described cyclic sequence, itimes'
of any sor!, we are doing the same lhing as
Cycticitlt brings the ,"rponi" oii.aginary
pturals.
:1,1.^1,::' to aggregates^is Bur a likeness
:^t_:l.ll.l,yor no.r.unmistakably giu.n'Uy._p..i."i. pri".,"
tanguage, it would be found in all languales, anA
our awareness of time and cycricity al.r -.on,uin ir is not.
somerhing immediate
and subjective - the basic-sense or'o".o.*g
rater and. rater., But, in the
habitual thought of us sAE peopre, tirit
i, lon-u.rled under somethin_e quire
difr'erent, which though mental should
not I cail it
be calred subjective.
o,bjeciifed, or imaginaiy, because rt
is part.rneJ on the outerworld.-Ir
that,reflects our linguistic usage. Ouriongue is this
makes no distinction between
numbers counted on discrete entities
and iumbers that are simpry .counting
itself.' Habitual thought then assumes
that rn ttr. latter the numbers are iust
_-=--.-_;.j:::;*
Benjamin Lee Whorl 447
as much counred on 'something' as in the former- This is objectification.
suulec ii u. ex oerience or u""o.nio
;n:"S: are H"':;:
later' and ::":' : :::.::f,,n"
objectified :as counred q";;r;;;;: especially g
t.ngttr, #li
.
up of units as a length can be uisiutl*art.Jofr-lnto ", e";i."g,h
iri"n*.
time' is envisioned as a:ow of similar uoitr,
lt. a row
In Hopi ihere is a differe,nt linguistic,;tuutioo. pruralsof bottles.
"f
used only for entities that form &.un
and cardinals aie
no 'imaginary prurals, but instead ordinals
f";;; objective group. There are
useo with singulars. such
an expression 'as 'ten days' is not used. The
equivalent statement is an
suiiabG .ouni.- .n,o:;;;J
operational one thar reaches one day by a
days'.becomes 'they stayed until the elevertir
aly' or .they left after the tenth
",
day.''Teu days is greater than nine aays, r.comls .the
the ninth'' our 'length of. time' is not regard;J;r
tenth day is later than
length but as a reration
between two events in rateness. Insteid
of ou," linguisticalry promoted
objectification of that datum of
"ons"iousn.rs
language has nor laid down any pattern
*. Jtt .ti,oii,'ii"'rr"pi
that would ctoat itre ,"bj..;r.
'becoming later' that is the essence
of time.
OF PHYSTCAL eUANTTTY rN
I'Ip_UN_S
SAE AND HOPI
We have two kinds of nouns_denoting physical
things: individual nouns, and
mass nou''s, e.g., .water,mi]k, wood, granite,
sand, flour, meat.,tnalviCuai
nouns denote bodies with definite ouilin..' ia
Mass nouns denote homogeneous continua
riee, a suck, ,""", l'rrirr.,
wrrhoui implied " boundanes.
The distinction is marked by linguistic
in English drop articles, and in Fiench
ro""; . g , mass nouns rack plurars,2
take dre iardtive *tiJt"-i",-al't", a^.
The distlnction is more widespread in iang;ge
than in rhe observabre
appearance of things. Rather few natural
.air'ofcourse, o."-urrJor., pr.r.oi-iir.ni*-ru..
unbounded extents;
and often,water, rain, snow, sand, rock, ",
dirt, grass.' We do not encounter .butrer,
meat, cloth, iron, glass,, or mosr
'marerials' in such kind of
manifestarion, uri i" bodies smail or rarge
definite ourlines. The distincrion is somewhaiio...a with
upon or. a*.ip-Jo" or
events by an unavoidabre.pattern
in lan-euage. Ir rs so rnconvenient in a great
many cases that we need some rvay
of inJividualizing the mass uou.,i- uy
further linguistic deviqes. This is paitly
aoni i/n.res of bod.y-types: .stick.
piece of cloth, pane of giass, cake
of rlap'; also, and even more, by
,o_l*o:d,.
rntroducin-e narnes of containers though
their contents be the real issue:
glass of warer, cuD of coffee,
aisn ofiooa, i"g ol flour, bortle of beer.,
These very conlmon container formulds,
rn turri.rr 'of, has an obvious,
visually perceptible meaning ('contenrs'),
influence our reering abour the
rype-body foiulas: ,r,i.t'oi-*ood, tump
f::
r ne ",!1l:,s^
of dough,, etc.
iorrnulas are very similar: individual noun prus a similai
reraror
 jll .+.18
I
I
Relution of Habitual Thought
ti ond Behavior to Lunguage
I. Benjamin Lee ll/horf , ,449

.i
s'i
s'
',rl
,'"'Jfi::X, "i;l ll .:[,::;:"::
pieces,' ;i.; ...;
ilEtcsts contents' 1T" :::,:... 1:::,.: n,.n,,, n
.
"::::., ttnt:-^tn:.'lumps, chunks, blocks,
o il cnormously rvide range of nouns. But even thesc are not quite generalized
cnough to takc in our phase nouns. So for the phase nouns we have made a
. r nswe r; ;; ;..;::J.,i.ffJ:'l:T;
i
J
rh

with
a a ;

SAE people the

:.,',,J1. :::.,:il.*n
philosoph;rt"jt,#.j ..utt.r,
g n::
formless item, 'time.' We havc made it by using 'a time,'i.e. an.occasion or
a phase, in the pattern of a mass noun, just as from 'a summer' we make
und are arso rhe naive
'summer'in the pattern of a mass noun. Thus with our binomiar forrnula we

I
i:
.l
: ii:,:f i,ili ff :Tih
rhing bv a binomiar thar ffi *rl*,
:?,3"'."-: :::;,,
spril ,i'" r.r...*.;ff:TJLtrl,ffi'i,l.r^ri.i,i;^l
r,-',"'ir,,. u gr, can say and think 'a moment of time, a second ol time, a year of time.' Lei
me again point out that the partern is simply thar of 'a bottle of milk' or
Hopi is again different' rr nas
riii
a.f
this ctass conrains o" rylnar-suu;# "
t";;ut
i;stinguished crass of nouns.
'a piece of cheese.'Thus we are assisted to imagine that.a summer'actuallv
But contains or consists of such-and-such a quantity of .time.'
individual sense and Uott #,i)r,
nounr. At nouns have an
In Hopi, however, all phase terms, like .summer, morning,' etc., are not
nearly our ru., *un,
sioguiu.;;;;il#? translaring most
stirr refer ro vasue 9*:'^fo_""r nouns but a kind of adverb, to use the nearest SAE analogy. They are
a
er ren rs. They imply formai parr of speech by themseives, distinct from nouns, *.br,
ina.fi ni reness,
specific
statements, iwater, or,'
"'",",*T'.".,
n.,"uo, on. *rr"in
::n"Jll. T:lTf other Hopi 'adverbs.' Such a word is not a case form or a locative"nd
.u.o
pattern,
what we call 'the substance ,nu* or quantity of water,
water., C."ar"r,,y of statement nor like'des Abends' or'in the morning.' It.contains no morpheme like one of
through the verb or predictor, is convev".r 'in the house'or'at rhe tree.'s It means'when it is morning'or.while
r'ri*
tj
"",,rr.-""u". Since nouns
atready, rhey are noi inoiuiJu"l;;j';;'Iii'rier
type-booies"..,r.,",it"r"l
morning-phase is occurring.' These 'temporals' are not used as subjects
or
:+l contarners' if there is no special n..a to or names or objects, or at all like nouns. one does not say 'it's a hot summer' or .summer
noun irself impries a suitabre .*iiasiz. shap. or container. The
-t: ,yp.-i"ai""r'."on,",n.r. one says, is hoi'; summer is not hot, summer is only when conditions are hot, when
of water'but ka.yi,a water,,noi.u nor ,a giass heal occurs. one does not say'/rtrs summer,' but .summer now' or .summer
poot of *",... but pa.ha,rnot,a
cornilour' but 4amni 'a (quantiry dish of recentiy.'There is no objectification, as a region, an exrent, a quantiry, of the
not .a
sik*i'a mear'' The ransuage piece of mear, but
"ii."*a".,r,,
has neither n;;;. nor anarogies on rvhich ro
subjective durarion-feeling. Nothing is suggested abour time except the
build the concept of exi*stence.as perpetual 'getring larer' of it. And so there is no basis here for a
I a dualiry of form.less item formless
ixi wrrh formlessness through and form. it deals item answering to our'time.'
'{,
otr,.. ry_Coil ;;;;;"r"..
PHASES OF CYCLES IN SAE AND IN
HOPI .TEIVIPORAL FORMS OF VERBS SAE AND HOPI
Such rerms as .summe
The three-tense system of SAE verbs colors alr our thinking about time.
This
us n o un s, a n d h ave,,,
can be subjects or objects,
;i. il il,.;i iili,Ti."l; #?Jlllll,"l;*. system is amalgamared with thar larger scheme of objectification
of the
'at a corner,or,in and we. s-ay 'u, ,uir.,' or 'in ":f,."r{:i
winter';"r,
*.t lil
subjective experience of durarion already noted in other patterns
the binomial formula appricable to nouns in general, in temiorar
- in
an orcha.a.,," ffr.y-ur-e-ifuratizea ", like nouns,
nouns of ph,vsicai objects, and numerated in plurality and numeration. This objecrificarion enables us in-imagination
as we have s".n. oi.r. thought
ol such rvords hence becomes about the referenrs to'stand time units in a row.'Imagination of time as iike a row harmonizes
objecrified. rv,-it.,our objectificarion,
be a subjective experience ir wourd with-a system of three tenses; whereas a sysiem of tvv'o, an
of real iime, r..
iater'-simply a cyclic pt_,.s. "i
ii. consciousness of .becomrng would seem ro correspond berrer ro the reering
earlier and a iater,
-i..,^.j,::O
ever-larer-becoming
silnlt". ro an earlier phase in that of duration as it is
durarillg"r, u, .i*u*inu,;on ."r r;;; J.r.u. ^on^r. experienced' For if rve inspecr consciousness rve find no pasr, present,
furure,
oe ser beside another but a. unity embracing comolexity. Ever.v-rhing is in^consciousness, and
and another in rhe manner or a spatia.r ii.e. visuairv
cercerved) configuration. e'erything in coasciousness ls, and is rogether. There is in it a
But such l. ,f.r. oiiirgui.llic arraiog;; rhai w. sensuous
co so ob3ecrify cy.clic phasing. ;r""=. o.nci a nonsensur--lls. We ma;,. ca:l :lri selsuous
tnstead or' e
We do i, .;." i:, saylng .a phase, and .phases. - *.hgt we ai-e seeins. hearing.
touching - the 'present' rvhile in rhe nonsensuous rhe uasr imaeJ-ruorid Ji
'phasing.'. And the p;;.;; li inaiuiau"t and mass
-e''
rvlth the resulting binomial nouns. memory is being labeled 'the past' and anorher realm of belief. iniuidon. and
formula item plus form, is ro e.n-.ai
that it is impricir for a,
nouns, "r1"""r.,, uncertainty 'the 'furure';
yei sensation, memor-v, foresighr, all are in
i;;.;"o". u.., _senerarized fo-n rtess
matter,' by "";
riems like'substance, consciousness together
rvhich ru..un fill out the - one is not 'yet to be' nor anothir 'once bur no
binomiai for an more.'where real time comes in is that all this in consciousness is'gerring
 4)U Relation of Habitual Thought antt Behovior
:l to Language
:r Benjamin Lee ll/horf
later,' changing certain rerations in an irreversibre
manner. In this .latering,
!, or 'durating' there seems me to be a. paramount contrast between the position, shape, and motion. We express duration by .long,
-to short, great,
newest, latest instant at the focus of attintion and the ..rt-_-trr. .u.u... much, quick, slow,' etc.; inrensity by :large, grear, much,
heavy, light, high,
Languages by the score get arong weil with low, sharp, faint,' etc.; tendency Uy .Loi", increase, grow, rurn,
two tenserike forms answering to get,
this paramount relation of 'lateri to 'earlier.' approach, go' come, rise, fall, stop, smooth, even,
ilfl we can of course construct and rapid, srow,; and so on
contemptat.e in thought a system olnlrt, through an almost inexhaustibre rist of metaphors thai
:i' present, i";;il;;'"i:."in.a we hardly recognize
'Ii
configuration of points on a rine. ttris is'wnar as such, since they_ are virtually the oniy linguistic media'
' our generar objectification ..a.ty, late,
avaiiabre.
. The nonmetaphorical- terms in
tendency leads us to do and our tense
system confirms. .this field, tit" soon, t"r,irrg,
Iu English the present tense seems the one least iu inrense, very, tending,' are,a.mere handful, quite inaiequ"t.
harrnony with the to tfr. i..Or.
paramount temporar rerltion, It is as
if pressed into various uoa ool *notty
It is clear how this condition'fits in.'It is part of our whore
scheme of
congnious duties. one duty is to stand objectifying -imaginatively spatializing qualiiies and potentiah
objectified past and objectified future,
as objectified middle ** i.i*..n
quite nonspatial (so far as any spatially peiceptive
;i;; u..
in nu.r"tioo, discussion, argument, senses can teii us;. t toun_
logic, philosophy. Another is to denote incirsion meaning (with us) proceeds from physicat utaies ro
in the sensuous field: referents oriu. ott.,
'I see him'' Another is for nomic, i-e. customanry or generalry varid,
sort. Since physical bodies and their ourlines in perceived
space aredenoted
statements: 'we see with our eyes.' by size anci shape terms ard reckoned by cardinar nun'u.rr-uoa
These varied uses introduce confusions piur"rr,
o[ thought, of which for the most part *. these patterns of denotation and reckoning extend
ur. unaware. to the symbols of
Hopi, as we mighr expecr, is diff'eient t... nonspatial meanings, and so s lggest an imalginary space. physicai
ioo. verbs have no .tenses, rike 'move, stop, rise, sink,.approach,' etc., in pe-rceived'rpu".; shapes
ours' but have validity-forms ('assertions'), aspects, *iy ooi,t.."
and crause-linkage other referents in their imaginary space? This has gone
forms (modes)' that yield even greater pr..rrion so rar ihat we can
of speech. The validrty- hardly refer to the simprest nonspaiiar situation wrhout
forms denote that the speaker (not the constant resort to
sublect) reports the situation physical metaphors. I 'grasp' the 'thread' or anorher's
(answering to our pasr and present) arguments, u*t ir it,
-u or that he expects it (answering to our 'level' is 'over my head' my attention may 'wander'
future)o or that he makes oo-i. statement (answering to our nomic and ,lose touch,with the
'drift' of it, so that when he 'comes' to his 'poinr' rve
g5es.ent).- The aspects denote different degrees of d,uration
and differeor difi'er .widely,; our
"yet 'views' being indeed so 'far aparr' thar the 'ttrings'
kinds of tendency 'during d.uration.' as we have noted norhing ro he says .appear, iinuch,
indicate whether an event is sooner or later too arbitrary, or€ven .a lot' of nonsense!
than another when both are The absence of such
reported' But need for this does not arise lrom Hopi speech is striking. Use of
until w,e have two verbs: .metaphor
space terrns when there is
i'e' two clauses. In that case the 'modes' denote no space invoived is not there as if on it had
-
relations between rhe been laid the taboo reetotall rhe reason is clear when
clauses, including rerations of later to earlier we know that Hopi
and of simuitaneity. Then rhere
are many detached words,that exDress sirnilar has abundant conjugational and. lexical means of expressing
relations, tr,rppr.-.iiing trr. intensity, and tendency directly as sirch, and that r";o.
our*bi,
modes and aspects. The d.uties oi our three-tense g".a-muti.ut
system and its tripartite patterns do not, as with us, provide analogies for
linear objectified 'time' are d,istributed among various an imagin".i ,f"... ffr.
verb categories, ail many verb 'aspects' express duration and tendency
different lrom our tenses; and. there is oo ,oor!
basis for an objectified time oi .uoii.stationr,
in Hopi verbs than in other Hopi parterns: akhough while some the .voices, express intensity, iendency, and duration
of
this does not in the least causes or forces producing manifestations. Then
of
hinder the verb forms and other a special part of speech,
iutr.*,
pertinent realities of actual situaiions.
from berng crosery adjusted to the the 'tensors,' a huge ciass of rvords, denotes onrv intensity,
tendency,
duration, and sequence. The funcrion of the t.nro* i;' ;"-;;;;.r,
intensities. 'stren-eths,' and how rhey continue or
vary, their rate of
change; so that the br6ad concepr of intensity, when
P.U3AT]-ON, INTENSITY, AND TENDENCY IN necessarily always varying andior continuing, includes
considered as
SAE AND HOPI also tend.ency and
duradon. Tensors convev distinctions of de-eree, rare,
consrancy, repeti-
To fit discourse ro manifold actual siruarions. all languages tion. increase and decrease of inrensit_v. imn:-ediare sequence.
need. to express rn,.r.up'tion
durations, intensiries, and tendencies. It.is characreristic or sequence after an interval. etc., also qualities of siiengths,
of SAE and such as *e
perhaps of many other langua€e types to should e.xpress metaphoricalry ur t.nooth, even, hard. rough.
express them metaphoricalry. A striking
feature is their lack of resembrance to the terms
The metaphors are those orspatiat eitension.
i.e. or size, number iplurality), of rear space and
movement that to us 'mean the same.' There is not even
mo.e than a trace
 xeratton oJ Hubitual Thought
ond Behavior to Lunguage
Benjamin Lee Ll/horf 453
cl apparent derivation from spacc
terrns.T So, while Hopi in its
secms rrouns
.highly concrete, here in the tensors it become. ,frnori
HABITUAL BEHAVIOR FEATURES OF
Deyond our power to follow.
"U.,ru., HOPI CULTURE

HABITUAL THOUGHT IN SAE

. our behavior, and that of Hopi, can be seen to be coordinated in many
AND HOPI ways to the linguistically conditioned microcosm. As in my fire casebook,
people act about situations in ways which are like the ways they talk
The comparison now to.be made
between the habituar thought worlds about 'them. A characteristic ol Hopi behavior is the ernpharit
of oo
SAE and Hopi speakers.ir or cou.s" preparatiou. This includes announcing and getting ready for events well
upon certain domin
ir"""tpr.". It is possibre only to touch
beforehaod, elaborate precautions to insure persistence of desired
oin...n..,l;;dy'i,x"#;1"1:11:#'rilTj.lr:n.:nl;r]i:: cooditions, and stress on good. will as the preparer of right results.
I mean more than -i.".
1j*.pry L"g"g", ,rrun the linguistic pauens Consider the analogies of the day-counting pattern aione. Time is mainly
rhemselves. I include all the anal{i""T;J; reckoned 'by day' (tatk, -tala) or .by nighr' (rok), which words are oot
1. ou.:i"';;i;;; space, and a,stani,l?T::T:JJ:T,Tjl.,i:.ff:
g, ii nouns but tensors, the first forned on a root .light, day,' the second on
a
and-take between ranguage and root 'sleep.' The count is by ordinals. This is not the pattern of counting
the cuiture as a whole, wherein
amount that is a vast a
is not linguistic but yet srrows
the shaping.influence number of
different men or. things, even though they appear
$$ language' In briei this ihought
*"ira; i.'ir,. microcosm rhat each manof successively,for, even then, they could gather into an assembiage. It is
I
:i.i
carries abour within himseft
b'y whictt1."*."r,rr., and understands the pattern of counting successive ,.up!.urun..s of the same man or
;pt he can of the macrocosm. what thing, incapable of forming an assembl"g.. fn. analogy is not to behave
$l
BI The SAE microcosm has anaryzed about day-cyclicity as to several men (.ieveral days'), which is what we
rear.ity rargely in terms of what
'things' (bodies and quasibodi.rl rt calls tend to do' but to behave as to the successive visits of rhe same man.
prut *o'aes of extensionar but ooe
tr
EI
existence thar it cats 'substan..r'' o. ;;;;;"r.'
formress does not alter several men by working upon just one, but one can prepare
t{
through a binomial formula ,'u, It. tends ro see exisrence
.*p...r., and so alter the later visits of the same man by working to affect the visit
plus a spatial formress continuum .*ist.or as a spatiar form
".ryform,
..i"r.a io the he is making now. This is rhe way rhe Hopi deal wiih the future _ by
to the outrines of its-container. Nonrpuii"t as cont6nts is rerated working within a present situation which is expecred to carry impresses,
sparialized and chareed wirh
existents are imaginativery
sim'ar i;;ii;;;"r, of form an. continuum. both obvious and occult, forward into rhe iuture event of interest. one
The Hopi microcJsm seer-ns.lo have might say that Hopi society understand.s our proverb .Well begun is half
analyzed reaiity largely ia rerms
EVENTS (or beuer .eventing,), ,.f..r.Oll- of done,' but not our 'Tomorrow is another day.; This may explain much in
subjective. Objecriveiy,'ana.,9"ly
in rwo ways, objective and
are expressed mainry a^s outl-ines,
iip.r*pti[f" physical experience, even6 Hopi characrer.
*ou"*.nrr, and other perceptive This Hopi preparing behavior may be roughly divided into announcing,
reDorts' subjectivery, for both "oio.r, outer preparing, inner preparing, cove* participation, and persistence.
considered the expression of
tt. prtysic"r and nonphysicar, everits
are
iavisibie iri..riiy facrors, on which A_nnouncing, or preparative publicity, is an important function in the hands
their srability and dsnen,
Dersisrence, or ,i.ir"1"s,i"eness of a special official, the crier chief. outer p..puriog is preparation invorving
ir implies that existenis do not 'u..o*.-r"i.. and p.""ri,:,j:r: much visibie activiry, not all necessary directly useful within our und.er-
una tur.., all in the same way;
but some do so by growing rite ptanis,i-l'.uy standing. It includes ordinary practicing, rehearsing, getting ready,
some by a procession of metamorprror.r, diffusing and vanisr'ng,
tntroductory formalities, preparing of special food, erc. (all of rhese ro a
*o.,"
uy
afi'ecred by violent forces. In the
narure ;fu;
*-n"1: is rhe power of its own
""JrJrg-i"
exrsrent "i"ffi.tirr
able to manirest as a
degree that may seem overelaborate to us), iniensrve sustained muscular
activity like running, racing, dancing, which is rhought to increase the
.1*i: n.oa.liA.,.ution: irs growth, dectine,
stablltry, cyclicity, or cre.a:l_veness. intensity of development of events (such as growth of crops). mimctic and
Evervthinf i, ,fru, alread-v_ .preoared,
ir3 iya) rr now n:anir:srs.by ea;ii:r phases, for other magic. preparaiicns ba.sec on esoie:-ic rheorv involving perheos occult
been, and partly
u-rJ
:j..pur.o., ii wiii oe iacer, partry instruments iike prayer sticks, pray'er lcathers, anci prayer meat, and finally
"r,,ur
,!1
lmporrance rests on this
,:_-^",
9i ri.i1s ,.
'r. prepari.ng
An emphasis and the great cyclic ceremonies and dances, which have the significance ol
or being irepared aspect of the world
preparing rain and crops. From one of rhe verbs meaning 'prcparc' is
ll^r_T:t ro^ rhe Hopi correspond ro rhar .quality of reality, thar ,marter,
'stuff' br derived the noun for'han'est' or'crop': na't*ani'lhe preplrcrl,'
has for us. or thc
'in preparation.'3
 ,t <.t
Relation of Hahituat Thought and
Behavioi to Laiguage Benjahin Lee l{horJ 455
Inner preparing is use of prayer and meditation,
and at resser inrensiry Covert participation is mental collaboration from people who do not take
'
good wi', further desirbd results. Hopi auirudes
ro
:::i:]r"i.:i-i
power of desire and thought. with their'microcosm,it srress rhe part in the actual affair, be it a job of work, hunt, race, or ceremony, but
is utterly nar.ural that
they should. Desire and thought are the earliest, direct their thought and good will toward the affair's success. Announce-
and therefore the mosr
important, most critical and cruciar, stage of preparing- ments olten seek to enlist the support of such mental helpers as well as of
Hopi, one's desires and thoughts infludncle not only
v"r.""*i" ,rr" overt participants, and contain exhortations to the people to aid with their
his lwu Uut f
' nature as well. This too is wholly natural. consciousness "rtioo., active good will. A similarity to our concepts of a sympathetic audience dr
itserf is aware "fof the cheering sectioq at a football.game should nol obscure the lact that it is
work, ofthe feel ofeffort and energy, in desire and .
thinking. Experience more primarily the power of directed thought, and not merely sympathy or
basic than language tells us that, iienergy is expend.ed,
.F..t, produced. encouragement, that is expected of covert participants. In fact these latter get
we teud to believe that our bodies can iiop "r. it from
up this energy, p..u.ot '
affecting other things until we will our bodis to in their deadliest work before, not during, the gamel A corollary to the power
over action. But this may be of thought is the power of wrong thought for evil; hence one purpose of
so oniy because we have our own linguistic
basis for a theory that formless covert participation is to obtain the mass force of many good wishers to
items like 'matter' are things in themserves,
maleabre only by simiiar things, offset the harmfui thought of ill wishers. Such attitudes greatiy favor
by more matter, and hence insurated from the powers
of rife and thought. It is cooperation and community spirit. Not that the Hopi community is not full
no more unnatural to.think that thought contacts
everything and pirvades of rivalries and colliding interests. Against the rendency ro social disintegra-
the universe than to think, as we all do, that
light kindled outdoors does this. tion in such a smal'I, isolated group, the theory of 'preparing' by the power of
And it is not unnatural to suppose ttrat thouiht, Iike
any other force, leaves thought, logically leading to the great power of the combined, intensified,
everywhere traces of effect- Now, when we ttrint
oia certain actuar rosebush, and harmonized thought of the whole communiry, must help vastly toward
we do not suppose that our thought goes
to thar actual bush, and engages the rather remarkable degree of cooperation that, in spite of much privare
wichit, like a searchlight turned upon it. What then do we ,uppor. ou.
bickering, the Hopi village displays in all the imporrant cuitural activities.
consciousness is dearing with when we are thinking of thar rtsebush?
Probably we think it is dealing with a 'menrar image' which Hopi 'preparing' activities again shorv a result of their linguistic thoughr
is nor the background in an emphasis on persistence and constant insisrenr repetirion.
rosebush but a mental surrogate of it. But why
shourd it be naturar to think A sense of the cumulative value of innumerable smail momenta is duiled by
rhar our rhought deals with a surrogate and noi with
the real rosebush? Quite an objectified, spatialized view of time like ours, enhanced by a way of
possibly because we are dimly aware that we
carry about with us a whole thinking close to the subjecdve awareness of duration, of the ceaseless
imaginary space, full of mental surrosates. To us, mentai
surrogates are old 'latering'of evencs. To us, for whom time is a mocion on a space, unvaryine
familar fare. Along with.the images if imaginary space, which
we perhaps repetition seems to scatter its force along a row of units of that space, and be
secretly know to be only imaginary, we tuck the thoughr-of
actually exisring wasted. To the Hopi, for whom time is not a motion but a 'getting later' of
rosebush, which may be quite anolher story, perhapJ.jrrrt
U..^ur! *.-huu. everything that has ever been done, urivarying repetition is not wasted but
that very convenienr 'el1c.e'.for it. The Hopiihought-world
has no imaginary accumulated. It is storine up an invisible chanee that holds over into larer
space. The corollary to this is that it may not rocare
rhought dealing wiih real euents.e As we have r."ti, ii is as if the rerurriof the day were felt as the
space anywhere but in real space, nor insulate real
space from the effects of return of the same person, a little older but wirh all the impresses of
thought. A Hopi would naruralry suppose that his ihought (or
he himserf) yesterday, not as 'anorher day,' i.e. like an enrirely different person. This
traffics with the acrual rosebush oi-more likery,
- corn prant - thar he is principle joined with thar ol thoughr-power and wirh traits of general
thinking abour. The thought then should leave some rrace
of irself with the Pueblo culcure is expressed in the theory of rhe Hopi ceremoniai dance for
plant in the field. If it is a good. rhoughr, one about
health and growth; it is furtherin-g rain and crops, as well as in its shorr, pisron-like tread, repeated
good for the plant; if a bad thought, the reverse.
thousands of t.imes. hour after hour.
{he Hopi emphasize the intensity-factor of thought. Thought ro be mosr
effecrive should be vivid in consciousness, definire,
steady, sustained, charged
rvith strongly felr good inrentions. They rend.er the
idea in English as SOIVIE IN,IPRESSES OF LINGUISTIC HABIT IN
'concentrating, holding it in yo,r heart, putting your
mind. on it, earnestly WESTERN CIVILIZATION
hoping'' Thought power is rhe force behino'ceremonies, prayer
sticks, rituar
smo.king, etc. The prayer pipe is regarded as an aid ro 'concentrating'
my informant). Its narire, na'twanpi, means 'instrument
(so said It is harder to do jusrice in ferv words to the Iinguisticelly condicioncd
of.preparins., leatures of our own culture than in the case of the Hopi' bcceuse oi barn

.-;.F 1
 vJ .,,u..F!. ,r.uuEnt unu Denavtor to Language
Benjamin Lee llthorf A<a
vasr scope and difficurty of objectivity - because of our deepry ingrained
familiarity wirh the artiruiles ,o i" unoir.d.
I wish merery to sketch certain l:,:::tt',': dadng, calendars, chronology, i,""Or,,,"*
characteristics adjusted to our ringuistic
binomialism oi flnn ptus ro..ters trme:-acr .sequence,
graphs, time as used in ph1,sics.
riiir ifm or 'substance,' to our metaphoricarness, our imaginary J. lig-il'. histories,
Annals,
"? the historical u,U,"j.,';r,.rest
:iri} objectified time. These, as we have seen, r space,
-r--Y' and our altitudes of introjection toward in the past, archaeology,
are linguistic: past pe;oar,..g. .iarsi"ir*, romanticism.
the form-plus:'substance dichoiomy the philosophical
. llg* views most
Just as we conceive our objectified
.traditionally characteristic of the 'western worrd' have.derived huge time as extending in the future in the
support. Here belong materialism, psychophysical same way that it extends in
parallelism, ptyri.._ the past, so we set down our estimates of
at least in its traditional Newton;"n rorm and the future in the same shape
i.*.a, oi rir. past, producing programs,
universe in generar. Indeed here belongs - duaristic views o[ the
schedules, budgets. The
as our

practical common sense.' Monistic,

almost everything that is .hard,
measure and fonnll .o;;;;;e -.ooriaer
spacelike units by which we
concei're time leadi
holiitic, and relativisticiriews of reality
appeal to philosophers and some scientists,
,,'to
'substance' of time to, u. trorog.o.; the ,formress item, or
but they are badly handicapped
in appealing to the ,common sense, of ihe western ;;d ;; ratio ro the number of units.
allocatio"
because nature herself refutes them (if
average man _ not
sne aio, philosophei .outo r,uu.
fr'|!'":[tJorata ";;;r;;,;'ii-i, r."ot* itserr to the bulding
discovered this much), bur because ihey
amounls to a new language: .Common
must be tarked about in what :"*:y;il;;:::::"::::._H,i:;::::ffi
charges, and insurance premiums. ,,ffi ::T..H:nf,"T;
'practicality' as its name does
sense,, as its name shows, and.
would continue to run under
N" 1.;;; rhjs vast system, bnce built,
not show, are largery marters of rarkrng so any to., oi riig,,istic treatment of time;
that one is readir-v understood. It is someiimes that it should have bt but
stared thar Newtonian space,
time' and matter are sensed by everyone
cited as showing how mathematical anarysis
intuitivery, whereupon rerativrty is
rorm i t has i n the,::;lj
patterns of the sAE languages.
*.il ii
J:: l'J.".,Hil i;T:l*fJ*itr,'iJ
can prove intuition wrong. whether such a civrtization as ours rvourd
This,. besides being unfair to intuition, possibie wirh widely. diff-Jrent be
is' an arrempr ro answer offhand u";;ir;;";;ndling of time is a large
question (l) put at the outset of this paper, question - in our civilization,
ou. llig"i.tl. i"r,.*, and. rhe fitting of our
to ansrver rvhich this research
was undertaken. presentarion behavior ro rhe remDoral order
of the Rnaings now nears irs end, and I think ;;;;;; are, and rhey are in accord.
the answer is clear. The o.ffhahd answer,
lav-ing the brame upon intuirion for
"r.
we are of course sdmulated ,"-..r;;"i;;;;rr,i".0.,
to measure time ever ore precisely; and watches, and. ro rry
our slowness in discovering mysreries of ihe
Cosmor, ,u.h ., ,.trtiu,ty, i, this aids science, and science in turn,
the wrong one. The ;ght ans*er is: following these well-li
Newtonian space, t.ime, and. matter are
no intuitions. They are receipts from curture
).lewton gor rhem.
and language. That is where 5,.::::::::"j*ii#::::T:1,,:::,"j1"-,,::::i.f #,il':$:"::;;;
qrrects scrence. tu,
*hl: l]:r outside rhis spiral? Science is beginning to
our objectified view of time is, however, favorabre to that there is something in'the find
historicity and to cosmo, trruiir-*t in accord with the conceprs
, everything connected with the keeping we have formed in mounring
;
j of records, rvhire the Hopi uie* is trre spi.ai.-ii i, t.y,og ro
rv rrdrr!tr
frame da new tqng
by_which to adjust itself to language
.,,:f unfavorable thereto. The ratter is too *ia.i-"r1"*r.."''""
s', Juutt., comprex, and ever-deveroprng,
supolying.no ready-made answer to the quesrion'oittrt.o It is clear how the .Tqhu:,:" on .ruui,rg
and 'another' begins. when it is impricit
o"., .".", ."0, and is very obvious objectificarion
ii.., *fri.f, goes wirh all the above
that everything thar ever t,afp.nea 'speed,' which leads ro a high varuarion of
srill is, but is in a necessariiv diffeienr lorm from
what memory or record
"iir*.,
shows irself a grear Oeui ,n our^Uehavior.
reports' there is less incenrive ro srudy rhe Still another behavioral eFecr is ,fr.,
past. As for rhe presenr, rhe ,fr. characler of monoronv and
lncentive would be nor to record ir by our image of rrme
bur to trear it pr.p"lrig.;";;; ,,r, :::lL,t persuades
ry:sessed .r.nty sceled limirler, ,"p.
somerhing ",
objectified time puts before imaginarion measure us to behave as if rhat "r-rn
like a ribbon or scro' monorony were more true of
marked-off into equai blank rp"..r, suggesting events than it really is. That is,
that each be fited rvirh an it helps to ,ouiinir. us. We tend ro select and
,o ,pLij'uo ,o, rhe rourine aspecrs of
eriiry' writi'g iras ,c douor hciped ,o*ir l'avor rvhatever bears out rhis ul.*.
ouiiineuiscic rreairnent oi-time. cxistcnce' one phase ot'lhis.is
e!'en as the linguistic tfearr.reni has guided bchalior *ir.i"g a talse sense of securicy or
the uses oix.riring. Through this
an assumprion thar a[ wit alrvays
-eive-and-take between language and the whore culture rve get. for instance: go smoothiv,i"a ]"J.1" r"*r..i".
ourselves againsr hazards. our " ""0
i l. llo:..,t:q techniqu. h;;r;;r-,"g'.i..gy
Records, diaries, bookkeeping, accounring, does well in routineperi'onnence, and "i
# accounring.
mathemarics srimuiated by
-
it is alongroutine
st.ve to lmprove it we are, lor example, thatrve chiefly
relatii,ely uninrerested
'ines in stopprng
the energy liom causing accidents.
fi;r,'u;;';;prosions. rvhich it is dorng
's{'

;i.
 458 Retatiin of Habituat Thought
and Behav,ior * ,*,
constantly and on Benjamin Lee Whorf
scare. Such indifference 459
1_wide ro rhe unexpe",.*rl
reverse transference occurs; for, after muqh talking about
i{#t!T,l#i:::H,J:"""',",T1'"*T*I*;::;.;;ilTlliuno",,, sharp, dull, heavy, briiliant, slow, the talker finds it easy
tones as high, low,
Thus our linguistica'y d;;;;;Ligr,, to think of some
with our culrurar iaor, uJ-ll"uri
*orra not on.ly collaborates
'iiTl"ou"r", tr,o..t in spatial experience as like factors of tone. rr,r, ir" ,p.Joi.roo.r,
.monotone,'
personar reactions in its even our unconscioui of color, a gray a.loud, necktie, a ,taste, in dress: all spatial
one such character' as.yve
pattern. *i g"* ,lem certain typicar metaphor in reverse. Now Europe-."ri ir airri*,ir.
i, ii""*# *.*,
bave t"* ir?-"r"r-""o
characters.
deliberately to play with synesthesia. Music tries
i,
as in
':;w $f,:f'f"'l'li' ioto *u,t";ff: reckress
driving or.
Aaother of a different sort
is
' movement' geometric design; painting and
to suggest scenes, coror,
sculpture url-on.n .oos"iourty
verv manv.gr t1"
speaking peopre fll s.',;;';;;'ii"loerirr,- guided by the anarogies of.music's rtryitrm;
"tlo.i
conjoined. with reeung
iri* t ut', ;t ;;"il:ill"
", i;:d':ll:,1""?lrli1;ilt.:::*.;i;i*
for the analogy to concords and disctrds.'The "..
European theater
-i op".u
lo'Ji":Ti.xfiH"ff
tt'u' ou i I"ogo JgJ;;fu by me tapho rs o r m a gin
;: seek a synthesis of many arts. It may be
language that is iu some sense a conflsion
ttrat in this way
"ri-","prr"ri*r
oi thougtrt is producing,
"' i ary through
art, a result of far-reaching value a deeper
- estheic ,.nr. t."ai-oiio*"ra
;:*#::.:1J,,ffi '_.f-':dd.lF3,T#1ffi ,'"','rT,T::nn*r+rt more direct apprehension of underlying. unity
behind ,rr. pi"o'ori.nu ,o"
and hence somewhat unclear r.f.r.o".
variously reported by our sense channeli.
more cle3r. But, if .",l1uonoticd refers to nonspatiars utrroui
spatial analogy, ,n. rt^t"n*uge impry;ng a
gesrure very rirtre, jt nol.rr-rade ti"ut".lv g.ti"r..'iii u"pi
- lr *ouijr;;';"il?-ft not at all in the"t'v sease we undeistand as gesture. HISTORICAL IMPLICATIONS
".rti::1t:",
though arising o.ro..''ijlLt-thesia' or the sensing or.ut.ur". .noi.*.r,,
ranguage'
should be made more highly.ot"t"io* How does such a network of language, culture,
ur"";'#
riog,rirti.
space and metaphoricai iriages
ov
historically? which was first: the ianguage parterns
and behavior come about
Kinesthesia i, ,"rt.lsTry oirrrotioo. or the culturar norms?
In main they have grown up together, constontly
au,op",n,",,ir;;;;"iri!:Ji:.TJ*i:.".1:*::tL:ul.*:,,r.:lt in this,partnership the nature of the language is the
inffu.n.iog.".rr-oir,ir. nu,
factor that limits free
uoJy;, ;;#;, plasticity and rigidifies channers of deveroimlnt
n:";n::,TH,,ffi:, :r^,i,.
expresses delight in
European pain ting rikewise.
This is so because a language is a system, not jusr
in the n'o., uu,o.iuri" *"y.
or ceremonial, motio.n rathei than an
our." $.nUofisrl
something "r*,"t;;;;;'oo.,rrr.
Large systematic outrines can change to
sportsarestrongry-iyin',1',:'il#:ii:ffi1:#[.#i{f#t;T;
"nd
slowly, while many other curtural in*novations
reaily new only very
races and games seem to.emphasize are made with comparative
sustained intensiry. tTl^f::i"S r"n.rirr. virtues of endurance and.
quickness. Language thus represents the
mass mind; it is affecte.r r..
great intensity and earnestness, * i,r,r,, ,^bolic
and is performed with inveJrtions and innovations, tut affected
tittt" sto*ty, ;h.# ;i
but trai oot-mu.ir. movement or
swing.
inventors and innovators it legislates with "ndimmediate.
the decree
.,.""p,ions or charlcters The growth of the sAE language-culture comprex
r.'tJJ;:?::";,:;:::t*t'""'uv-'"""ii","n
as of light and color by times' Much of its metaphoricai reieren.r
dates from ancient
shoulj Ui i"J*"r."ense, sound uoa ui..-u.rru, ro ,rr. ioilp;i i, * ,0",t"
was already fixed in the ancienr tongues,
and more especially in Latin. It is
indeed a marked trait of Latin. If ,i.
::t",u:u;",,.'.1-1'.1'1'.:"i",1H:"?:T:[?1:?'1|:'J",T"[T while Hebrew has some allusion to not-space
.ornpu.., say Hebrew, we find that,
as space,
Latin terms for nonspatials, like ed,uco, ,r,iig:r, principia, Latin has more.
il:Hyiilil.$:*it&:t.ffi ::i[:.:i,..*yJ::T,i:T;*m: usually meraphorized physical references:
comprehend,o, are
t."aa out, tying Ua.t, .r.. ifri, l,
:. llj:.*;: ryi,,*f i: IHf tl
ex perince has e _"ilji,jj,:::'
e on not true of all languages - it is quite unrrue
but lirtle organized. Nonspadal o[ Hopi. Thl fact ihat i.rl-"t,n
i, u ,.utn', the direction of development happened
"o"r"iourn.r, chiefly of thought, to be from spatiaL to nonrp-"trur
["':ff 'frt ;:#1,:iil",-.onr"io urn.Jr-i " ;"'* of ri gh t, co lor, si gh t, and
(partiy because of secondary stimulation ro
intellecrually crude Roman, .n.ount.red
absrract thinking *rr.i tr..
creek curture) u"i ,i"i']u,.,
";-;,;;#;.;i:_;.ffi
rastes,
;1.",*1,?i:iJ::::,ff
emodons, and;h""st;;;;ii,*1',1[i,T."l;if,::,T:::":ill,,,i;iii, l*r**i:*;l; jongues were strongly stimulated to mimic Latin, seems a likery reason
belief, which srill lin-eers on among linguists,
that this is
for a
the natural direction
angles, rextures, and motiJns
oi;;;;;;i;;;;""". And to some exrenr the of semantic change in all languago, uia ro.t'e persistenr
notion in western
learned circles (in strong contrast to Eastern
ones) that objective experience
 ,"#;::,111' 14
;ili#:T: :?,T; [: ii 1," ":=l "
ca se fo r, r. J..,.,
Benjamin Lee
< ll/horf -46

'
fi :

'",'f
tri'iff
fi
f,*p?;3'i
rn the
x{Hit s .';r .Ti.'ffi iFrilffi
ji.i::$Ti.:''.,1i.1"$#ili"":ff :1":ffi'"1..;
qr compared
iil; :::::i,:l'ff X'i,ii,':l::l':sress-certai"'.ffi
niH:',:"#m:ni:'^-'*11i:H"'"'-i#lt.''lm:x"'"'l,rl
Middre .iq;;' ,h"
;:ffi:.:,::legho:r.' .---'v' suutyp"_oii;ru,,'.,?_t11xlfi
ro'm'd in Latin extensio'ar item that must ll;:rJ,;3#[T,T;*Fl"*i,:,l
:il:3ffJ:#l1,iT;:::'""e ;;;;;#lfafr began to
In Hopi rhel:
exrsrence'
be join"a iir,n u.ro." theri can be real
'.i-,i -corresponding
to te nottrrig
n: to.rmless extensional ::errs
##f H"in:":ff ii!''n'*"*$i:iii'T:n*:l;'llb;1,; items; existen". rniu- to it; rhere are

#l***ij,":ffi *'#*t*i*ii'.it':;ffit:
;{"1
But "m
ff ;:Jl l;#l3
what about our
uesii alln"* ll
t
$ ;J
"ilf:,T;.i"1
;:ffi ; ;?.ili'
nrs q o
:,kff ?;#H::"ffi ::X ;jllll j"rlT

_,ffi': g rul#]ffi
about space as abour rime,
:""Ti3j
and p.ouuJ& iii-uip..r,.nrion
of space is sven
:ii""-?::":.t:"].t1ire Tme to'm lv *p;l;;resoective or ro--.^- --
j:iTff
:i.,'"',T,}'H:,T,,:.,fl *lLr:::#jl,f,:"lqiiT"i
"l'.ij
:;ff
#[jii+"i*;1.::*:li*.,::t.;:i,;"'',;F];T;tographic
rhat could be
made
I ang ua ge, b eca use,
1 I ".
i,
ry ;;;; ; rui"r,, l':1 ;:[? H :rT:
or1. other l"*ri.",'"r "'r:il
::1"."#111:,',llllit''"I roors, or the order or .rime,
eyes i n, h e,;;,;;.:;
property of acring ti.ll':# fl# :i Xl"ffiixlru ::xi:* ri
"*g*sru**,l;l*t*il"#*ff.r*ffi
rt**t+Fir'f ,f''.','#ti*:x#f
-- as.a surrogare of'nonspatat.
rnrensrty, rendencv. and retatiorishiir'iit.
as a uoi-d to L. n,.o'*i,r-,;.rgi".Jffit'il, ,i*.,

n::ii,:**:ut,:li#
;'ffi
j':".ffiift1,l':;,:*li...,.a
one of which may'even.be.car.J

ff :,;:,:,::Tl11,ff
it..r,
tp"*.,'i;"i." u, sensed by the Hopi would
T1l?#H,".*'":.1,::*,,;;;;;'",;'#::.0^,u.
ttfi,'ffi i"nft:,.:ifiiii','i':h;:..;*[ii:}j
As for our second_question:
".. ""nnections
u"i*"-*
rrr...
but qot correiations
-
t**T:ft ll,,ff ::n:fou'Ji'ifoooo.'""' ."'r,,i.1' norms and iiog,,;rri"
cfuefs from th. Ju.ki,I"o,'^'-1lt.tt"l-ossible to. infer ttre exis,...o-..'or c.i.,
trrfr'.';i;,f; ,"x'.9,in,,*"*r;r*dlT jhfuj:tnrl 3':::'"Ti;"*#":#" j[iti,':'T!':il:.:':?;;:l;;g"m*li:
rnere are cases where,the-'fashions
orrp.u-irg, are closery integrared with

,lil,t,:':'=ffi l* r*qi:,*#*'""?ii:,fi :: "

*r* ,H.-*?:"i.Jfi?:;r,:i.,
v, .
wherher o.-noi:' trri, be
uni versarry- true, and
;;l;;' " ";' H: Jll' il i,"'#li ;5-1;1i, i'., r.i 1 J' I r I i s'i,,i.
taken :,
i
::."1
by various cur rorar 0",.r opoi.oir.-d;Tr,?:t

**f****t***r'ffi*tffi
;liJT*Tl1#i#j*,'i 1"J;ffir;Ji;".:T:,rl..i?i
/
Chiefs does have a connection,
sysrem of thought tl.,:,n-,.n
natural. These connecrions
artention on rhe typical rui.:ri.e
"","g"J., i,tr.."; i;;;
,lH,l'j:.jt:
rl", *i f., tnr"l.rrn*r, itsell bur JH::
;;;r:,
wirh a
are ro-u. rouna";'il' to
^.-,,i_-,,,_lL":-,"tt
much by focusing
":":,,^"r"...:.?:: "r.
;ych a 'pu.., uoa-'.;;,#:"::"fi ilffffi::T.' "'rt. u'*o;;:TJj; i
$i:T il'." l# ;l**ir; :*t:mt:tr;:Y ;r ;:il#*;
#::1:";fi:rll:lil:.Tfix?:*:,'rjfl "-
whore.in*,,i"i,-i"".""',1","",u,i:1.1,Ii,^ffi "l'JJru:*:#;1?;.:
:ddiiilgil_Xl,j
I3J""3i"oiXofft:|,"'; '*i"' "nJ'-lt;';';" exisr, evenruariy ro be
 462 Retation of Habitual Thoughr and Behavior to Language
Benjanin Lee ll/horf 463
NOTES linguistic background tends to hinder in us rhis same recognition, for having
legitimately conceived force to be that which produces change, we thcn think
I As we say' '!en at the rdrne lrrne,'showing that in our language and thought
we
of
restate the fact of group perception. in terms of a concept .time,' the large change by our linguistic metaphorical aoalog, motion, instead of by a pure
motionless changingness concqpt, i.e. accumulation or acceleration. Heoce
linguistic component of which will appear in the course of ihis chapter. it
. comes to our naive feeling as a shock to find from physical experiments that
2 It is no exception to this rute of lacking a prural that a mass noun may it is
not possible to define force by motion, that motion and speed, as also .being at
sometimes coincide in lexeme with an individual noun that of cou-rse has a
plural; e.g., 'stone'(no. pl.) witlt.a stone' (pl. .stones'). The plural rest,'are wbolly relarive, and that force can be measured only by acceleration.
form denoting l0 Here belong rNewtonian' and 'Euclidean' space, etc.
varieties, e.g., 'wiues'is of course a differint sort of thing irom
the true piurar;
itis a curious outgrowtb from the sAE mass nouns, leading .to stiil another sort,
o-f imaginary aggregates, which will have to be omitted from
_
3
ttris chapter.
Hopi has two words for water quantities; ka-yi and. pa.ha. The differeqce
is
something like that between 'stone' and 'rock'in Englisi, pa.ha imprying
greater
size and 'wildness'; flowing water, whether or not ouldoors or in nature,
is
pa'ha; so is 'moisture.' But, untike 'stone' and 'rock,'
the diference is essential,
not pertaining to a connotative margin, and the two can hardly ever be
interchanged.
4 To be sure, there are a few minor differences from other nouns, in Engrish flor
instance in the use of the articles.
5 'Year' and certain combinations of 'year' with name of season, rarely
season
names a.lone, can occur with a locative morpheme 'at,, but this is exceptionat.
It appears like historical detritus of an earlier different patterning, or the effect
of English analogy, or both.
6 The
_expective
and reportive assertions contrast according to the .paramount
relation.' The expective expresses anticipation existing earlier than objecrive
fact, and coinciding with objectivi fact rater than the rtut* quo of the speaker,
this status quo, including alr the subsummation of the past therein, berng
expressed by the reportive. our notion 'future'seems to represent at
once the
I earlier (anticipation) and the later (afterwards, what wiil be), as Hopi shows.
This paradox may hint of how elusive the mystery of real time is, and how
artificially it is expressed by a linear relation of past_pres"ent_future.
,
7 one such trace is that the tensor'long in duration,'while quite different from tt'e
adjective'long'of space, seems to contain the same root as the adiective,larse'
of space. Another is that'somewhere'of space used with certain tensors meJns
)l 'at some indefinire time.' Possibly however tbis
:4 is not the case and it is only the
tensor that gives the time element, so that 'somewhere' still refers to space and
that under these condirions indefinire space means simply general applicabiliry,
regardless of either time or space. Another trace is that in the templral (cycle
word) 'afternoon' the element meaning 'after' is derived from the verb'-to
separate.'There are other such traces, bu! they are few and exceptional, and
obviously not like our own spatial metaphorizing.
8 The Hopi verbs of preparing naturally do not correspond neatly to our
'prepare'; so that na'twad could also be rendered 'the
practiced upon, the tried
for,' and otherwise.
.:)
9 This notion of storing up power, which seems imptied by much Hopi behavior,
has. an analog in physics: acceleration. It might be said that the
1 linguistic
ir backgroun.d of Hopi thought equips it to recognize qaturally that force
{
manilests not as motion or velocity, but as cumuration or accereration. our
\I
I
,t