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Lexis and Culture: Bound and Determined?

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Abstract

Although never validated by either quantitative or qualitative research, the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis continues to be a dominant position from which to consider the relationship between language and culture. This paper challenges the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, and attempts to show that lexis and culture are not as inextricably bound to each other as is commonly supposed. After considering numerous examples from Spanish, English and Japanese, the model of cultural prototypes is offered as an alternative to the present psycholinguistic paradigm.

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Hadley, G. Lexis and Culture: Bound and Determined?. J Psycholinguist Res 26, 483–496 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1025086204994

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