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| The possibilities of individual expression are infinite, language in particular is the most fluid of mediums. |
| —Chapter IX |
Edward
Sapir |
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| Edward Sapir |
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| 1884–1939, American linguist and anthropologist, b. Pomerania. Sapir was brought to the United States in 1889. After teaching at the Univ. of California and the Univ. of Pennsylvania, he served (1910–25) as chief of the division of anthropology of the Canadian National Museum. He was professor of anthropology at the Univ. of Chicago (1925–31), and of anthropology and linguistics at Yale from 1931 until his death. With his student Benjamin Lee Whorf (1897–1941) he developed the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, arguing that the limits of language restrict the scope of possible thought and that every language recognizes peculiar sets of distinctions—e.g., Eskimo and its rich vocabulary for different kinds of snow.—continue at Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright © 2002 Columbia University Press. |
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Pronunciation:  s -pîr´ from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. |
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- WORK
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- Language: An Introduction to the Study of Speech. 1921.
The classic text on the relation of language and culture.
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