Editing Linguistic determinism (section)

==Role in literary theory==
Linguistic determinism is a partial assumption behind developments in [[rhetoric]] and [[literary theory]].<ref name="Mcgraw, Betty R. 1983, p. 114">Mcgraw, Betty R., et al. "Dissemination." SubStance, vol. 12, no. 2, 1983, p. 114., {{doi|10.2307/3684496}}.</ref> For example, French philosopher [[Jacques Derrida]] dissected the terms of "paradigmatic" hierarchies (in language structures, some words exist only with [[antonym]]s, such as light/dark, and others exist only with relation to other terms, such as father/son and mother/daughter; Derrida targeted the latter). He believed that if one breaks apart the hidden hierarchies in language terms, one can open up a "lacuna" in understanding, an "aporia," and free the mind of the reader/critic.<ref name="Mcgraw, Betty R. 1983, p. 114"/> Similarly, [[Michel Foucault]]'s [[New Historicism|New Historicism theory]] posits that there is a quasi-linguistic structure present in any age, a metaphor around which all things that can be understood are organized. This "[[episteme]]" determines the questions that people can ask and the answers they can receive. The episteme changes historically: as material conditions change, so the mental tropes change, and vice versa. When ages move into new epistemes, the science, religion, and art of the past age look absurd.<ref>Dzelzainis, Martin. "Milton, Foucault, and the New Historicism." Rethinking Historicism from Shakespeare to Milton, pp. 209–234., {{doi|10.1017/cbo9781139226431.014}}.</ref> Some [[Neo-Marxist]] historians{{who|date=April 2014}} have similarly looked at culture as permanently encoded in a language that changes with the material conditions. As the environment changes, so too do the language constructs.