• DOI:10.1515/cogl.1991.2.2.123
• Corpus ID: 143773292

Whorf's Hopi tensors: Subtle articulators in the language/thought nexus?

@inproceedings{Lee1991WhorfsHT,
  title={Whorf's Hopi tensors: Subtle articulators in the language/thought nexus?},
  author={Penny E. Lee},
  year={1991}
}

• Penny E. Lee
• Published 1991
• Linguistics

Whorf's use of the term "tensor" to describe certain adverbial particle s and constructions in Hopi has been called "impractical and alienating" by Malotki. However, when Whorf s rationale for the use of the term is reconsidered in the context of field data and descriptions provided by Malotki, it is found to be justified. Whorf's analysis of these peculiarly dynamic "expressions ... of Operation" draws attention to the way they can be thought ofas expressing (or operationalizing), at sentence anddiscourse level, conceptual activity which contributes significantly to the abstraction and construction ofmeaningful human experience from the ongoingflow of experiential data. The term "tensor" has potential for use in descriptions oflanguages other than Hopi, and Whorf s analysis ofHopi tensors suggests another starting pointfor thinking about communicable conceptual activity.