Language influences thought according to linguistic relativity hypothesis

Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis

According to the linguistic relativity hypothesis, what people think is influenced by the language they know, because the structure of the language affects the conceptualization that they have of their surrounding world (Deutscher, 2010; Niemeier & Dirven, 2000). I would have to agree with this for the most part, because when a person looks at the world, he or she identifies things in that world based on not only the words for the objects that are viewed but the concepts of what those objects are for. For example, seeing a chair produces the word "chair" in the mind of someone who speaks English, but it also brings up the concept of sitting. What kind of sitting is thought of, though, (after a long day of work, while holding a baby, while eating, because of sickness or disability, etc.) may be based on the past experience of the person and not strictly focused on the sitting concept itself. Because of that, I do not necessarily think that language influences all thought. Sometimes, memories from the past and other feelings that come up from seeing or hearing something also influence the thoughts a person has about the items seen in his or her world.

The different aspects of thought that are being dealt with are important to address, as well. Thoughts are not static, and they flow quite freely from one to the next in the minds of most people. Because that is the case, there are many issues about thought to consider - including the fact that thoughts seem to often appear at random. In other words, a thought may come from something in the subconscious, instead of from another thought that was recognized or from something that was seen or heard (Deutscher, 2010). Because it can be very difficult to determine from whence a thought actually came, it can also be very difficult to "make sense" of that thought in the context of how it relates to language. It can also be difficult to take that thought and tie it into other thoughts or into specific words, as it is not uncommon for people to say they simply cannot put the thoughts that they are having into the words to adequately express those thoughts (Niemeier & Dirven, 2000).

Researchers define language in these kinds of studies somewhat differently from one another. Language can be written, spoken, or even just understood, as there are those people who understand someone speaking to them in a different language, but they are not fluent enough to carry on a conversation or to read the language in a book or newspaper. Because of that, it is very important for researchers to consider the issue of language carefully. Language fluctuates between different people and different cultures (Niemeier & Dirven, 2000). For most of the studies, though, researchers define language as the native language (both spoken and written) of the individual subject or study participant (Niemeier & Dirven, 2000). That way, the participants all know the language fluently and their thoughts are not influenced by their inability to come up with a word for an object.