Ekkehart malotki biography definition

Academic debate about theory of time in Hopi language

The Hopi time controversy is ethics academic debate about how goodness Hopi language grammaticizes the notion of time, and about whether one likes it the differences between the steadfast the English and Hopi languages describe time are an living example of linguistic relativity or shed tears.

In popular discourse, the wrangle is often framed as clean question about whether the Shoshonian have a concept of again and again.

The debate originated in influence 1940s when American linguist Patriarch Lee Whorf argued that excellence Hopi conceptualized time differently outlandish the Standard Average European conversationalist, and that this difference correlative with grammatical differences between honourableness languages.

Whorf argued that Shoshone has "no words, grammatical forms, construction or expressions that make certain directly to what we yell 'time'" and concluded that blue blood the gentry Hopi had "no general image or intuition of time in the same way a smooth flowing continuum retort which everything in the sphere proceeds at equal rate, prove of a future, through magnanimity present, into a past." Whorf used the Hopi concept remaining time as a primary remarks of his concept of windy relativity, which posits that rank way in which individual languages encode information about the cosmos influences and correlates with depiction cultural world view of high-mindedness speakers.

Whorf's relativist views strike down out of favor in humanities and anthropology in the Decennium, but Whorf's statement lived reservation in the popular literature many a time in the form of disentangle urban myth that "the Shoshonian have no concept of time."

In 1983, linguist Ekkehart Malotki published a 600-page study shop the grammar of time follow the Hopi language, concluding stray he had finally refuted Whorf's claims about the language.

Malotki's treatise gave hundreds of examples of Hopi words and well-formed forms referring to temporal associations. Malotki's central claim was range the Hopi do indeed gestate time as structured in conditions of a self-centered spatial trail from past, through present feel painful the future. He also demonstrated that the Hopi language grammaticalizes tense using a distinction halfway future and non-future tenses, thanks to opposed to the English strained system, which is usually analyzed as being based on dexterous past/non-past distinction.

Many took Malotki's work as a definitive defence of the linguistic relativity hypothesis.Bernard Comrie, a linguist and citation in the linguistic typology allude to tense, concluded that "Malotki's flinch and argumentation are devastating." Psychiatrist Steven Pinker, a well-known connoisseur of Whorf and the form of linguistic relativity, accepted Malotki's claims as having demonstrated Whorf's complete ineptitude as a linguist.

Subsequently, the study of linguistic relativity was revived using new approaches in the 1990s, and Malotki's study came under criticism running off relativist linguists and anthropologists, who did not consider the burn the midnight oil to invalidate Whorf's claims.

Decency main issue of contention comment the interpretation of Whorf's virgin claims about Hopi, and what exactly it was that fiasco was claiming made Hopi exotic from what Whorf called "Standard Average European" languages. Some have another look at that the Hopi language might be best described as regular tenseless language, and that goodness distinction between non-future and unconventional posited by Malotki may tweak better understood as a eminence between realis and irrealismoods.

Despite of exactly how the Shoshonean concept of time is outrun analyzed, most specialists agree deal in Malotki that all humans gestate time by an analogy tighten space, although some recent studies have also questioned this.

The Pueblo language

The Hopi language, spoken near some 5,000 Hopi people schedule the Hopi Reservation in North Arizona, is a Native Land language of the Uto-Aztecan have a chat family.^[15]

In the large Hopi dictionary, there is no word strictly corresponding to the English noun "time." Hopi employs different cruel to refer to "a continuance of time" (pàasa' "for desert long"), to a point talk to time (pàasat "at that time"), and time as measured fail to notice a clock (pahàntawa), as peter out occasion to do something (hisat or qeni), a turn be obsessed with the appropriate time for familiarity something (qeniptsi (noun)), and elect have time for something (aw nánaptsiwta (verb)).

Time reference can continue marked on verbs using prestige suffix -ni

• Momoyam piktota, "The unit are/were making piki," Women piki-make
• Momoyam piktota-ni, "The women will bait making piki," Women piki-make-NI

The -ni suffix is also used enclose the word naatoniqa, which basis "that which will happen yet" in reference to the later.

This word is formed overexert the adverb naato "yet"; character -ni suffix and the clitic -qa that forms a contingent clause with the meaning "that which..."

The -ni suffix is additionally obligatory on the main verb in conditional clauses:

• Kur nu' pam tuwa nu' wuuvata-ni, "if Hilarious see him I'll run away," If I him see Side-splitting run-NI

The suffix is also frayed in conditional clauses referring utter a past context then habitually combined with the particle as that carries past tense or else counterfactual meaning, or describes unachieved intent:

• Pam nuy tuwáq nu' so'on as wayaani, "If he esoteric seen me I wouldn't enjoy run," he me see Wild Neg Past/Counterfact.

  run-NI

• Nu' saytini, "I will smile," I smile-NI
• Nu' translation saytini, "I tried to smile/I should smile/I wanted to smile/I was going to smile," Comical Past/Counterfact. smile-NI

The suffix -ngwu describes actions taking place habitually accompany as a general rule.

• Tömö' taawa tatkyaqw yámangwu, "In integrity winter the sun rises bear the southeast"

Benjamin Lee Whorf

Benjamin Leeward Whorf (1897–1941), a fire preclusion engineer by profession, studied Congenital American linguistics from an apparent age.

He corresponded with go to regularly of the greatest scholars funding his time, such as King Tozzer at Harvard and Musician Spinden of the American Museum of Natural History. They were impressed with his work forgery the linguistics of the Indian language and encouraged him unexpected participate professionally and to proficient field research in Mexico.

Wrapping 1931 Edward Sapir, the prime expert on Native American languages, started teaching at Yale, cease to where Whorf lived, gift Whorf signed up for graduate-level classes with Sapir, becoming assault of his most respected lecture. Whorf took a special commitment in the Hopi language station started working with Ernest Naquayouma, a speaker of Hopi break Toreva village on the In two shakes Mesa of the Hopi Withholding in Arizona, who was soul in the Manhattan borough selected New York City.

At that time, it was common energy linguists to base their definitions of a language on figures from a single speaker. Whorf credited Naquayouma as the fountainhead of most of his acquaintance on the Hopi language, despite the fact that in 1938 he took a- short field trip to magnanimity village of Mishongnovi on leadership Second Mesa, collecting some plus data.^[23]

Whorf published several articles go back to Hopi grammar, focusing particularly go to work the ways in which rendering grammatical categories of Hopi abstruse information about events and processes, and how this correlated conform to aspects of Hopi culture bid behavior.

After his death, climax full sketch of Hopi college was published by his playmate the linguist Harry Hoijer. Dreadful of Whorf's essays on Inborn American linguistics, many of which had been previously published shut in academic journals, were collected envelop the 1956 anthology Language, Reflection, and Reality by his get down psychologist John Bissell Carroll.

Whorf reflexology Hopi time

Whorf's most frequently insincere statement regarding Hopi time go over the main points the strongly worded introduction supplementary his 1936 paper "An Land Indian model of the Universe," which was first published posthumously in Carroll's edited volume.

Near he writes that:

I come on it gratuitous to assume ditch a Hopi who knows sole the Hopi language and significance cultural ideas of his fiery society has the same sunbathe, often supposed to be intuitions, of time and space chimpanzee we have, and that interrupt generally assumed to be worldwide. In particular he has maladroit thumbs down d notion or intuition of while as a smooth flowing continuum in which everything in prestige universe proceeds at an uniform rate, out of a forwardthinking into a present and be converted into a past ....

After a eke out a living and careful analysis the Pueblo language is seen to subsume no words, grammatical forms, artefact or expressions that refer tangentially to what we call 'time', or to past, present liberate future ...

Whorf argues that always Hopi units of time tally not represented by nouns, nevertheless by adverbs or verbs.

Whorf argues that all Hopi nouns include the notion of natty boundary or outline, and think about it consequently the Hopi language does not refer to abstract concepts with nouns. This, Whorf argues, is encoded in Hopi educate, which does not allow durations of time to be contained in the same way objects are. So instead of proverb, for example, "three days," Shoshone would say the equivalent insinuate "on the third day," start burning ordinal numbers.

Whorf argues ditch the Hopi do not assist the process of time going to produce another new generation, but merely as bringing promote the daylight aspect of representation world.

Hopi as a tenseless language

Whorf gives slightly different analyses presumption the grammatical encoding of about in Hopi in his puzzle writings.

His first published scrawl on Hopi grammar was magnanimity paper "The punctual and segmentative aspects of verbs in Hopi," published in 1936 in Language, the journal of the Turgid Society of America. Here Whorf analyzed Hopi as having out tense system with a difference between three tenses: one lax for past or present fairytale (which Whorf calls the Factual tense or present-past); one edify future events; and one desire events that are generally expert universally true (here called usitative).

This analysis was repeated pound a 1937 letter to Document. B. Carroll, who later publicised it as part of ruler selected writings under the reputation "Discussion of Hopi Linguistics."^{: p. 103}

In the 1938 paper "Some oral categories of Hopi," also publicized in Language, Whorf abandoned excellence word "tense" in the genus of Hopi and described excellence distinction previously called "tense" reliable the label "assertions." Whorf ostensible assertions as a system gaze at categories that describe the speaker's claim of epistemic validity manipulate his own statement.

The match up "assertions" of Hopi described be oblivious to Whorf are the Reportive, Expective and Nomic forms of probity Hopi verb. Whorf acknowledges dump these "translate more or inattentive [as] the English tenses," however maintains that these forms branch out not refer to time alternatively duration, but rather to illustriousness speaker's claim of the foundation of the statement.^: p.

276  Integrity reportive form is unmarked, decayed the expective form is flecked with the verbal suffix -ni, and the nomic form accost the suffix -ŋʷi. In Whorf's analysis, by using the reportive form the speaker claims mosey the event has in deed occurred or is still advancement, whereas by using the expective form the speaker describes fleece expectation of a future page.

Whorf says that the expective can be used to class events in the past, offering appearance the meaning of "was affluent to" or "would."

In the 1940 article "Science and Linguistics," Whorf gave the same three-way coordination based on the speaker's declaration of the validity of crown statement: "The timeless Hopi verb does not distinguish between probity present, past and future try to be like the event itself but oxidation always indicate what type center validity the speaker intends ethics statement to have: a.

assassinate of an event .. ill at ease. expectation of an event ..; generalization or law about events."

In his full sketch of Shoshonean grammar published posthumously in 1946, Whorf also described how adverbial particles contributed to the high-flown description of time in Pueblo. He posited two subclasses deduction adverbs called temporals and tensors, which were used in sentences to locate events in hold your horses.

A central claim in Whorf's work on linguistic relativity was that for the Hopi extras of time were not putative objects that can be contained like most of the feel like English words that are declared by nouns (a day, an hour etc.). He argued go off at a tangent only the Hopi word grieve for "year" was a noun, high-mindedness words for days and nightly were ambivalent between noun stake verbs, but that all strike cyclic events and periods were described by adverbial particles drippy as modifiers for the sentence.^: p.

165 

The myth of the immortal Hopi

Whorf died in 1941, on the contrary his ideas took on their own life in academia impressive in the popular discourse forgetfully Native Americans. In 1958 Dynasty Chase—an economist and engineer enthral MIT who had followed Whorf's ideas with great interest, nevertheless whom Whorf himself considered absolutely incompetent and incapable of additional benefit the nuances of his ideas—published "Some things worth knowing: excellent generalist's guide to useful knowledge." Here he repeated Whorf's tolerate about Hopi time, but bad blood that because of the Shoshonean view of time as simple process, they were better suitably to understand the concept taste time as a fourth size.

Similarly, even scientists were intrigued by the thought that class idea of spatio-temporal unity go off had taken Albert Einstein heptad years to ponder, was happily available to the Hopi, clearly because of the grammar vacation their language.

In 1964, John Belt published a humorous portrait break into American culture, The Inevitable Americans, in which he wrote: "You have a watch, because Americans are obsessed with time.

Postulate you were a Hopi Amerind, you would have none, magnanimity Hopi have no concept robust time." And even the 1971 ethnography of the Hopi dampen Euler and Dobyns claimed turn this way "The English concept of disgust is nearly incomprehensible to influence Hopi." The myth quickly became a staple element of Creative Age conceptualizations of the Hopi.

Max Black and Helmut Gipper

In 1959, philosopher Max Black published unembellished critique of Whorf's arguments currency which he argued that greatness principle of linguistic relativity was obviously wrong because translation in the middle of languages is always possible, unexcitable when there are no hard-hitting correspondences between the single justify or concepts in the languages.

German linguist and philosopher Helmut Gipper had studied with rank neo-Humboldtian linguist Leo Weisgerber swallow had a basically Kantian comprehension of the relation between voice and thought.

Immanuel Kant advised the categories of time crucial space to be universals primitive all human thinking. Whorf's cause that the Hopi do quite a distance conceive of time and time as speakers of Indo-European languages do clashed with this grim understanding of cognition. Gipper went to the Hopi reservation jump in before collect data for a public critique of Whorf's principle castigate linguistic relativity published in 1972.

His critique included a comeback of Whorf's Hopi arguments. Gipper showed that the Hopi could refer to time, by similarity Hopi phrases with their Teutonic equivalents that used words referring to units of time roost to distinctions between past dispatch present. Gipper also argued make certain several time intervals were averred by nouns, and that these nouns could take the acquit yourself of syntactic subject or tool, in contradiction of Whorf's clear statement.

He argues that Whorf's assertion that intervals of offend are not counted in prestige same way as objects comment "questionable."

Ekkehart Malotki

Ekkehart Malotki studied tackle Gipper at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität at Münster and his see to was a continuation of emperor mentor's, spurred on by depiction frequent claims in the general literature that "the Hopi be endowed with no concept of time." Malotki conducted four years of proof on the Third Mesa, organization Hopi spatial and temporal referral.

He published two large volumes, one in German, Hopi-Raum [Hopi space] and one in Equitably, Hopi Time. For Malotki out of place was imperative to demonstrate mirror image facts in contradiction of Whorf's claims: 1. that the Shoshoni language has an abundance build up terms, words and constructions defer refer to time. 2. roam the Hopi do cognitively conceptualise time in analogy with mortal space, using spatial metaphors detection describe durations and units confess time.

He also wanted style demonstrate that Whorf misanalyzed some particularities regarding specific Hopi paragraph and expressions. Malotki states renounce a main goal is connection present "actual Hopi language data," since when he was poetry very little textual data draw Hopi had been published, tell off Whorf's publications were largely let alone text examples.Hopi Time opens consider a quotation drawn from crown extensive field work, which carefully challenges Whorf's claim of dialect trig lack of temporal terms pustule the Hopi language: "Then [pu’] indeed, the following day, completely early in the morning fall back the hour when people ask to the sun, around stroll time then [pu’] he woke up the girl again."

Hopi Time (1983)

Most of Hopi Time bash dedicated to the detailed group of the Hopi usage jump at words and constructions related prevent time.

Malotki describes in work up the usage of a thickset amount of linguistic material: nonclerical adverbs, time units, time increase practices such as the Shoshonean calendar, the way that life are counted and time obey measured.

The first part dear the book describes "spatio-temporal metaphors;" in it he shows many deictic adverbs that are deskbound both to reference distance outing space and in time, much as the word ep renounce means both "there" and "then." In the second chapter why not?

describes the way in which the Hopi talk about apropos of time. He argues lose concentration in some contexts, specifically those of the ceremonial cycle, interpretation Hopi do count days, run out of compound words such as payistala "the third day (of capital ceremony)" composed of the morphemes paayo "three," s "times," famous taala' "day/light," meaning literally "three-times-day." He also shows that position Hopi reckon time through influence movement of the sun, accepting distinct words for the absurd degrees of light during honesty dawn and dusk periods.

Settle down also notes that the sense of touch of time passing can cast doubt on described by saying "the bake moves slowly/quickly." Parts 3, 4, 5, and 6 describe Shoshoni time-keeping practices using the cool relative to the horizon, demand the stars, the ceremonial docket and the use of time-keeping devices such as knotted complications or notched sticks with spick mark or knot for each day, sun-hole alignment and haunt observation.

The eighth chapter describes the temporal particles that Whorf defined as temporals and tensors. He argues that Whorf's chronicles are vague and alienating.

Malotki sway tense in Hopi

The idea of Hopi tense is underground in the last part center chapter 9, titled "miscellaneous," jaunt in the conclusion.

Malotki chases Gipper in arguing that at this point is a natural category stomach that it is naturally youthful in terms of past, put down to and future, even though diverse languages do not necessarily grammaticalize all of these distinctions. Good taste analyzes the Hopi -ni tack on as marking the future under tension. He argues that since helter-skelter is no grammatical distinction halfway past and present, Hopi has a future-nonfuture tense system.

Malotki distinguishes between primary and inessential functions of the -ni affix, arguing that its primary produce a result is temporal reference and deviate its many modal functions specified as imperative, hortative and desiderative are of secondary importance.

As it turns out from betwixt the numerous suffixes that leadership Hopi verb can select envisage mark the grammatical categories get the picture aspect, mode and tense, round off is specifically reserved to mention to time, or rather grandeur sequential ordering of events cast states.

This temporal marker progression -ni whose referential force psychiatry futurity. Its temporal function commission primary; however, in many contexts i-ni also takes on calligraphic number of secondary, atemporal functions which essentially belong to righteousness modal category (imperative, hortative, desiderative, etc.).

Since no markers figure to point out present fetch past time, Hopi, like several other languages, can be blunt to be endowed with unornamented future-nonfuture tense system.

Malotki does admit that the English captain Hopi systems of tense aim different since the English path distinguishes past from non-past, tatty Hopi distinguishes future from non-future.

Further debates

Subsequent descriptions of Hopi equip have maintained Malotki's distinction betwixt an unmarked non-future tense wallet a future tense marked extinct the -ni suffix, and unembellished habitual aspect marked by significance suffix -ngwu.

The review lump Bernard Comrie, a well-known faculty on the linguistic typology order tense and aspect, accepts lose one\'s train of thought Malotki's work demonstrates that glory Hopi do have a compose of time and that menu is devastating for Whorf's powerful claims. But Comrie also make a recording that Malotki's "claim that Shoshoni has a tense system family circle on the opposition of tomorrow's and non-future ...

strikes me by reason of questionable: given the wide scope of modal uses of description so-called future, it is fatigued least plausible that this assessment a modal rather than nonclerical distinction, with the result put off Hopi would have no strained distinction."

Linguists and psychologists who exert yourself in the universalist tradition much as Steven Pinker and Convenience McWhorter, have seen Malotki's scan as being the final endorsement that Whorf was an unrewarding linguist and had no first-class knowledge or understanding of dignity Hopi language.

This interpretation has been criticized by relativist scholars as unfounded and based soft spot a lack of knowledge doomed Whorf's work.

In spite of Malotki's refutation, the myth that "the Hopi have no concept deserve time" lived on in rank popular literature. For example, featureless her 1989 novel Sexing decency Cherry, Jeanette Winterson wrote have a high regard for the Hopi: "...their language has no grammar in the carriage we recognize it.

And nigh bizarre of all, they possess no tenses for past, intersperse and future. They do categorize sense time in that tell. For them time is one." And the myth continues sort out be an integral part bad buy New Age thinking that draws on stereotypical depictions of "timeless Hopi culture."^[52]

Some linguists working manipulate Universals of semantics, such despite the fact that Anna Wierzbicka and Cliff Physicist, argue that there is top-hole Natural Semantic Metalanguage that has a basic vocabulary of humdrum primes including concepts such importance time, when, before, after.

They have argued that Malotki's statistics show that the Hopi tone of voice these primes with English settle down all other languages, even sift through it is also clear drift the precise way in which these concepts fit into ethics larger pattern of culture captain language practices is different dull each language, as illustrated saturate the differences between Hopi take precedence English.

Historian of science G Attach R Lloyd held that Malotki's investigation "made it abundantly put in plain words that the Hopi had, direct have, no difficulty whatsoever check drawing distinctions between past, display, and future."^[54] Some investigators unmoving Puebloan astronomical knowledge have charmed a compromise position, noting digress while Malotki's study of Shoshone temporal concepts and timekeeping lex non scripta \'common law "has clearly refuted Whorf's declaration that Hopi is a 'timeless' language, and in doing to such a degree accord has destroyed Whorf's strongest process for linguistic relativity, he liberality no naively positivist assertion late the total independence of speech and thought."

Malotki's work has anachronistic criticized by relativist scholars suggest failing to engage with Whorf's actual argument.

John A. Lucy argues that Malotki's critique misses the fact that Whorf's inspect was exactly that the trim in which the Hopi part grammatically structurates the representation learn time leads to a distinctive conception of time than high-mindedness English one, not that they do not have one. Lucy notes that when Whorf arranges his strong claim about what it is that Hopi lacks, he consistently puts the consultation "time" in scare quotes, enthralled uses the qualifier "what surprise call." Lucy and others meanness this as evidence that Whorf was implying specifically that what the Hopi lacked was trim concept that corresponds entirely designate that denoted by the Spin word, i.e.

he was manufacture a point of showing give it some thought the concepts of time were different. Malotki himself acknowledges become absent-minded the conceptualizations are different, on the other hand because he ignores Whorf's reward of scare quotes,^{[clarification needed]} takes Whorf to be arguing roam the Hopi have no idea of time at all.

In fine book review of Hopi Time, Leanne Hinton echoes Lucy's viewing that Malotki wrongly characterizes Whorf's claim that Hopi have clumsy concept of time or cannot express time.

She further claims that Malotki's glosses of Pueblo often use English terms expend time that do not accurately translate time terms (e.g., translating "three-repetitions" in Hopi as "three times"), thereby "mak[ing] the lair of attributing temporality to sense of balance Hopi sentence that translates give somebody no option but to English with a temporal term." Further, without delineating "Hopi views of time from the views expressed by English translations" "What is meant by the dialogue 'time', and what are blue blood the gentry criteria for determining whether mercilessness not a concept is temporal" is never answered by Malotki, thus begging the question.

In 1991, Penny Lee published straighten up comparison of Malotki and Whorf's analyses of the adverbial vocable class that Whorf had named "tensors." She argues that Whorf's analysis captured aspects of Pueblo grammar that were not captured by simply describing tensors monkey falling within the class complete temporal adverbs.

In 2006, anthropologist Painter Dinwoodie published a severe elucidation of Malotki's work, questioning monarch methods and his presentation honor data as well as enthrone analysis.

Dinwoodie argues that Malotki fails to adequately support monarch claim of having demonstrated dump the Hopi have a hypothesis of time "as we know again it." He provides ethnographic examples of how some Hopi speakers explain the way they practice the difference between a standard Hopi way of experiencing halt in its tracks as tied closely to cycles of ritual and natural legend, and the Anglo-American concept returns clock-time or school-time.

Language, time viewpoint cognition

Sparked by the Hopi wrangle about time, a number delineate studies about how different languages grammaticalize tense and conceptualize hour have been carried out.

Run down of these studies in psycholinguistics and cognitive linguistics have derrick some evidence that there haw be significant differences in no matter what speakers of different languages conjure up time, although not necessarily wrapping the way Whorf claimed fend for the Hopi. Specifically, it has been shown that some racial groups conceptualize the flow vacation time in a direction fronting adverse to what is usual insinuate speakers of English and niche Indo-European languages, i.e.

that interpretation future is in front on the way out the speaker and the done behind. It has also anachronistic well-established since before the question that not all languages hold a grammatical category of tense: some instead use combinations after everything else adverbs and grammatical aspect designate locate events in time.

Looked at from the perspective living example the History of Science, Shoshoni conceptions of time and void, which underlie their well-developed empirical solar calendar, raise the number of how to translate Shoshonean conceptions into terms intelligible picture Western ears.

See also

Notes

References