Linguistic relativity hypothesis argues that humans see colors less with their eyes than with their language. (Fountain, 1999) The linguistic relativity hypothesis is important to help in understanding the reasoning behind the way that thought processes develop with the different cultures. The thought processes determine how language comes about and the reasons that the same word can mean different things with different cultures.
In the eyes of a linguist, colors are categorized in eleven words. But, in different cultures the number of words to categorize colors is different. Some cultures have as few as five words to categorize colors. If one culture categorizes color differently from another culture, they would perceive it different as well. What may be green to one culture may be blue to another culture. Linguistic categories affect the way the world is seen. The results support the idea of linguistic relativity if they show color perception as being dependent on categorizing through language.
Results of experiments guided by pointed questions have shown evidence that language shapes thought. (Begley, 2009) People who speak different languages show dramatically different results of cognitive tasks in all manners. Some cultures use gender to symbolize different words, such as female meaning death in one culture, where it would be male meaning death in another culture. The results have also shown that shades of colors with distinct names help people have a better memory...
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