Sapir–Whorf hypothesis
Sapir–Whorf hypothesisThis hypothesis of linguistic relativity argues that (to quote one of its authors) language ‘is not merely a reproducing instrument for voicing ideas, but is itself a shaper of ideas, the programme and guide for the individual's meaningful activity’. In short, language determines (or shapes) our perceptions of reality. The classic literary example of this is the ‘newspeak’ of the totalitarian rulers of George Orwell's 1984. The most famous commonly cited examples in social science are probably those of the Hanunoo, who have 92 names for rice, each conveying a different reality, and the Eskimo, who have over a hundred words for snow, though these overstatements have been questioned by later studies. What remains valid is the claim that fine differentiation permits cultures to see important facets of their society and environment more clearly and in different ways from others.
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