Whorf's linguistic relativity hypothesis

Linguistics

Language can directly impact, if not totally constrain, perceptions and cognitions, according to the Sapir-Whorf linguistic relativity hypothesis. Ample evidence supports the hypothesis, as conceptualizations of reality and events are experimentally different in different language contexts, evaluated by testing native speakers of different languages and requesting their interpretation of various events. For example, language impacts perceptions of colors, which can in turn impact salient issues in the perception of reality (Jraissati, 2013). Implications of color differentiation differences may be witnessed in the worlds of art, business, and design. Lai & Narasimhan (2015) show that different languages conceptualize motion differently, with some languages like Spanish concentrating more on the directionality or path of motion, versus languages like English, which emphasize the manner or methods of a motion. It is easy to see why differential motion perceptions might influence witness perceptions of a crime, which is why officers of the law may need to pay closer attention to linguistic relativity when interviewing witnesses and suspects. Language can influence heavily one's perception of other people and other cultures. For example, Chen, Benet-Martinez & Ng (2014) found that bilingual speakers exhibit a more expansive view of self vs. other. Being bilingual therefore makes it more possible for people to relate to or accept other cultures, given the expanded worldviews the additional language confers. The implications for research on linguistic relativity are important for politics and sociology.

Verbs particularly shape views of reality, in that events are described in a certain way. The English grammatical structure of Subject-Verb-Object also necessitates that an action is both caused by a party/parties, and an action is done to another. Issues related to blame and victimization may arise in a grammatical scenario such as that witnessed in English. Likewise, the way English describes actions, and the level of specificity applied to specific actions, will impact the perception of the action. That perception will also affect how the action is communicated or conveyed to others. The speaker will focus on certain aspects of the event, to the exclusion of others. Contextualization, or lack thereof, can also be a problem. One verb in English that lacks contextualization is the verb "to fry," which in the context of food preparation, can refer to deep frying or pan frying. In other languages, such as French or Mandarin, there are different words for deep-fry and for pan-fry or saute. Some speakers of the English language have therefore adapted culinary words from other languages to offer greater specificity to the act of cooking and also to the finished product: the cuisine itself.