Testing the untestable? Guidelines for advancing empirical research in the area of Linguistic Relativity

Abstract

Despite the long philosophic tradition of disputing the relation between language and thought as well as the huge amount of recent empirical research addressing it, evidence for (or against) the claim of the Sapir-Whorf-Hypothesis stays non-conclusive and the scientific community divided on the topic.
This article identifies two major methodological flaws in older and recent research related to the Sapir-Whorf-Hypothesis (or Linguistic Relativity), which can be hold responsible for this.
Firstly, the vagueness of the hypothesis itself is brought into focus and different modern readings that are precise and detailed enough to serve as testable theories for empirical research are proposed. Secondly, it is criticized that no initial agreement among researchers exists concerning theoretical guidelines determining what would count as decisive evidence for the core claim of the hypothesis. Therefore, a list of 11 guidelines for research in this area is put forward. This could, if followed, serve in refuting the pessimistic assumption put forward by researchers like De Cruz (2009) and show that the Sapir-Whorf-Hypothesis is indeed empirically testable.