Linguistic relativity in the light of spatial markers: some research advances of the last twenty years Hizkuntz erlatibitatea espazio-markagailuen argitan: azken hogei urteetako ikerketen zenbait aitzinamendu En Eu

Résumé En Eu

Since its formulation by Whorf at the beginning of the 1940s and the posthumous publication of a selection of the author’s writings in 1956, the "linguistic relativity principle" has known a variety of fortunes. This paper begins with a broad outline of linguistic relativity’s ideas and their precursors, and follows by setting out the opposed point of view of universalism largely dominant in the history of ideas, included the last fifty-sixty years with the emergence and rise of cognitive sciences. The clarification of the initial relativist hypothesis and its subsequent reformulation as a revised linguistic relativity in the mid-1990s is then addressed, together with the large amount of work carried out in this renewed framework, in particular in the field of spatial semantics. The paper ends by presenting an alternative view that tries to reconcile linguistic relativity with universalism and to get a better articulation between language and thought.

1940ko hamarkadaren hastapenean Whorfek azaldu, eta 1956an egilearen lan hautatuak argitaratu ostean (hil ondoko argitalpen gisa), "hizkuntz erlatibitate printzipioak" hainbat zorte ezagutu ditu. Hizkuntz erlatibitateari loturiko ideien eta haien aurrekarien ikusmira zabala eskainiz hasten da artikulu hau, ondotik kontrakoa den unibertsalismoaren jarrera aurkeztua delarik: azken hau hedatuena izan da ideien historian zehar eta hala dirau azken berrogeita hamar - hirurogei urteetan, zientzia kognitiboen sortze eta gailentzearen ondorioz. 1990eko hamarkadaren erditsuan, erlatibitatearen hipotesia nola argitua eta berrazaldua izan zen –hizkuntz erlatibitate berriztatuari bidea eginez– aipatzen da jarraian, baita esparru birmoldatu horretan obratu den ikerketa mordoa ere, espazio-semantikaren alorrean bereziki. Hizkuntz erlatibitatea eta unibertsalismoa bateratzen saiatzen den ikuspegi alternatiboa zehazten da azkenik, mintzaira eta gogamenaren arteko uztartze hobeagoa helburu duena.