Language: Plan and Conception of Arrangement

Title: Language: Plan and Conception of Arrangement
Description: Editor's note: In 1938, Whorf circulated this table and an accompanying outline in manuscript form among selected colleagues. It was written as a supplement to the Outline of cultural materials prepared by George P. Murdock and his colleagues at the Department of Anthropology at Yale University as a guide to ethnological field workers, and is referred to in the brief "Language" section of that outline.

In several places in his writings Whorf mentions the desirability of a "world-survey" of languages; this outline was doubtless intended by him as a suggested standard framework for collecting the information on particular languages which would be needed for such a survey.

The reader's attention should be directed first to the table … which displays the whole scheme of language as conceived by Whorf.
Creator: Whorf, Benjamin Lee
Date: 1938
Source: Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf
Bibliographic Citation: Whorf, Benjamin Lee. 1956. Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf. Edited and with an Introduction by John B. Carroll. MIT Press. Page 126