Although many scholars have concerned themselves with the questions of whether and how diverse languages influence thought, contemporary social science research centers on the claims of Benjamin Lee Whorf, a student of native American Indian languages. Whorf drew extensively upon the prior work of anthropologists Franz Boas and Edward Sapir in his formulation of the problem, so it will be useful to examine their contributions first. The discussion will be relatively detailed, since an understanding of Whorf's position and an evaluation of his contribution depend on a comparison with these two predecessors.

Language as the reflection of culture: Boas

Franz Boas (1858–1942) was born and educated in Germany. He later emigrated to the United States, where he was the person primarily responsible for building anthropology into a professional discipline. He made contributions to most of the subfields of anthropology, including physical anthropology, social and cultural anthropology, and linguistic anthropology. His primary concerns were to break away from racial and evolutionary conceptions of culture by arguing on the one hand for the psychic unity of mankind and on the other hand for a notion of distinct cultures and culture areas, each to be studied on its own terms. In this chapter only his work on language will be discussed, although his broader agenda shapes his argument at several points.

The linguistic analysis of experience

Boas made three arguments about the nature of language that are important for the eventual development of the view that language plays a role in shaping thought.