Editing Linguistic relativity (section)

== Other domains ==
Linguistic relativity inspired others to consider whether thought and emotion could be influenced by manipulating language.

=== Science and philosophy ===
The question bears on philosophical, psychological, linguistic and anthropological questions.{{clarify|reason=what question?|date=May 2017}}

A major question is whether human psychological faculties are mostly innate or whether they are mostly a result of learning, and hence subject to cultural and social processes such as language. The innate opinion is that humans share the same set of basic faculties, variability due to cultural differences is less important, and the human mind is a mostly biological construction, so all humans who share the same neurological configuration can be expected to have similar cognitive patterns.

Multiple alternatives have advocates. The contrary [[Social constructivism|constructivist]] position holds that human faculties and concepts are largely influenced by socially constructed and learned categories, without many biological restrictions. Another variant is [[idealist]], which holds that human mental capacities are generally unrestricted by biological-material structures. Another is [[essentialism|essentialist]], which holds that essential differences{{clarify|reason=what essential differences|date=May 2017}} may influence the ways individuals or groups experience and conceptualize the world. Yet another is [[relativist]] ([[cultural relativism]]), which sees different cultural groups as employing different conceptual schemes that are not necessarily compatible or commensurable, nor more or less in accord with external reality.{{sfn|Leavitt|2011}}

Another debate considers whether thought is a type of internal speech or is independent of and prior to language.<ref>{{cite book |last=Raykowski |first=Wes |date=2014|title=Conceptual Understructure of Human Experience: Volume 1 (Thesis)}}</ref>

In the [[philosophy of language]], the question addresses the relations between language, knowledge and the external world, and the concept of [[truth]]. Philosophers such as [[Hilary Putnam|Putnam]], [[Jerry Fodor|Fodor]], [[Donald Davidson (philosopher)|Davidson]], and [[Daniel Dennett|Dennett]] see language as directly representing entities from the objective world, and categorization as reflecting that world. Other philosophers (e.g. [[Willard Van Orman Quine|Quine]], [[John Searle|Searle]], and [[Michel Foucault|Foucault]]) argue that categorization and conceptualization is [[Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy)|subjective]] and arbitrary. Another view, represented by [[Jason Josephson Storm|Jason Storm]], seeks a third way by emphasizing how language changes and imperfectly represents reality without being completely divorced from ontology.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Josephson-Storm|first=Jason Ānanda|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1249473210|title=Metamodernism : the future of theory|date=2021|isbn=978-0-226-78679-7|location=Chicago|pages=186–7|oclc=1249473210}}</ref>

Another question is whether language is a tool for representing and referring to objects in the world, or whether it is a system used to construct mental representations that can be communicated.{{clarify|reason=what is the relevance of this in the local context? Is this a true dichotomy?|date=May 2017}}

=== Therapy and self-development ===
{{Main|General semantics|neuro-linguistic programming}}

Sapir/Whorf contemporary [[Alfred Korzybski]] was independently developing his theory of [[general semantics]], which was intended to use language's influence of thinking to maximize human cognitive abilities. Korzybski's thinking was influenced by logical philosophy such as [[Bertrand Russell|Russell]] and [[Alfred North Whitehead|Whitehead's]] ''[[Principia Mathematica]]'' and [[Ludwig Wittgenstein|Wittgenstein]]'s ''[[Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus]]''.<ref name="Korzybski1949">{{cite book|first=Alfred |last=Korzybski|title=Time-binding: The General Theory : Two Papers 1924–1926|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=3BvXAAAAMAAJ|page=5}}|year=1949|publisher=Institute of General Semantics|pages=(5), 54}}</ref> Although Korzybski was not aware of Sapir and Whorf's writings, the philosophy was adopted by Whorf-admirer Stuart Chase, who fused Whorf's interest in cultural-linguistic variation with Korzybski's programme in his popular work "''The Tyranny of Words''". [[S. I. Hayakawa]] was a follower and popularizer of Korzybski's work, writing ''[[Language in Thought and Action]]''. The general semantics philosophy influenced the development of [[neuro-linguistic programming]] (NLP), another therapeutic technique that seeks to use awareness of language use to influence cognitive patterns.<ref name="lisawake">{{cite book|first=Lisa |last=Wake|title=Neurolinguistic Psychotherapy: A Postmodern Perspective|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=xmffzEo-qXIC}}|date=31 March 2008|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-09482-0}}</ref>

Korzybski independently described a "strong" version of the hypothesis of linguistic relativity.<ref>{{Cite journal |url=http://www.generalsemantics.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/articles/etc/40-1-read.pdf |doi=10.5840/cpsem19828 |pages=16–21 |title=The Semiotic Aspect of Alfred Korzybski's General Semantics |journal=ETC: A Review of General Semantics |year=1983 |volume=40 |series=1 |publisher=JSTOR |jstor=42576577 |last1=Read |first1=Allen Walker |issue=1 |access-date=20 January 2013 |archive-date=13 April 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140413184208/http://www.generalsemantics.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/articles/etc/40-1-read.pdf |url-status=dead}}</ref>

{{blockquote|We do not realize what tremendous power the structure of an habitual language has. It is not an exaggeration to say that it enslaves us through the mechanism of s[emantic] r[eactions] and that the structure which a language exhibits, and impresses upon us unconsciously, is automatically projected upon the world around us.|Korzybski (1930)<ref name="Korzybski1958">{{cite book|first=Alfred |last=Korzybski|title=Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=KN5gvaDwrGcC|p=90}}|year=1958|publisher=Institute of GS|isbn=978-0-937298-01-5}}</ref>}}

=== Artificial languages ===
{{Main|Constructed languages|Experimental languages}}

In their fiction, authors such as [[Ayn Rand]] and [[George Orwell]] explored how linguistic relativity might be exploited for political purposes. In Rand's [[Anthem (novella)|''Anthem'']], a fictive [[communist]] society removed the possibility of individualism by removing the word "I" from the language.<ref>{{cite web | title = Critical Essays The Meaning and Importance of "I" in Anthem | url = https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/a/anthem/critical-essays/the-meaning-and-importance-of-i-in-anthem | website =  CliffNotes| date = 2021 | access-date = October 25, 2021}}</ref> In Orwell's ''[[1984 (book)|1984]]'' the authoritarian state created the language [[Newspeak]] to make it impossible for people to think critically about the government, or even to contemplate that they might be impoverished or oppressed, by reducing the number of words to reduce the thought of the locutor.{{sfn|Pinker|1994|loc=chap. 3}}

Others have been fascinated by the possibilities of creating new languages that could enable new, and perhaps better, ways of thinking. Examples of such languages designed to explore the human mind include [[Loglan]], explicitly designed by [[James Cooke Brown]] to test the linguistic relativity hypothesis, by experimenting whether it would make its speakers think more logically. [[Suzette Haden Elgin]], who was involved with the early development of neuro-linguistic programming, invented the language [[Láadan]] to explore linguistic relativity by making it easier to express what Elgin considered the female worldview, as opposed to [[Standard Average European]] languages, which she considered to convey a "male centered" worldview.<ref>{{Citation |last=Okrent |first=Arika |title=In the Land of Invented Languages: Esperanto Rock Stars, Klingon Poets, Loglan Lovers, and the Mad Dreamers Who Tried to Build A Perfect Language |publisher=Spiegel & Grau |year=2009 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/inlandofinvented00okre/page/208 208–257] |isbn=978-0-385-52788-0 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/inlandofinvented00okre/page/208 }}</ref> John Quijada's language [[Ithkuil]] was designed to explore the limits of the number of cognitive categories a language can keep its speakers aware of at once.<ref>{{cite news|last=Foer|first=Joshua |title=UTOPIAN FOR BEGINNERS: An amateur linguist loses control of the language he invented|newspaper=The New York Times|date=24 December 2012 |url=https://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/12/24/121224fa_fact_foer}}</ref> Similarly, Sonja Lang's [[Toki Pona]] was developed according to a [[Taoism|Taoist]] philosophy for exploring how (or if) such a language would direct human thought.<ref>''A Million Words and Counting: How Global English Is Rewriting the World'', Paul J. J. Payack, (C) 2007, p. 194.</ref>

=== Programming languages ===
[[APL (programming language)|APL programming language]] originator [[Kenneth E. Iverson]] believed that the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis applied to computer languages (without actually mentioning it by name). His [[Turing Award]] lecture, "Notation as a Tool of Thought", was devoted to this theme, arguing that more powerful notations aided thinking about computer algorithms.<ref>{{Cite journal|journal=[[Communications of the ACM]] |volume=23 |issue=8 |pages=444–465 |date=August 1980 |doi=10.1145/358896.358899 |title=Notation as a tool of thought |last1=Iverson |first1=Kenneth E. |s2cid=14177211 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Kenneth E. Iverson - A.M. Turing Award Laureate |url=https://amturing.acm.org/award_winners/iverson_9147499.cfm |access-date=2024-04-05 |website=amturing.acm.org}}</ref>

The essays of [[Paul Graham (computer programmer)|Paul Graham]] explore similar themes, such as a conceptual hierarchy of computer languages, with more expressive and succinct languages at the top. Thus, the so-called [[Blub paradox|''blub'' paradox]] (after a hypothetical programming language of average complexity called ''Blub'') says that anyone preferentially using some particular programming language will ''know'' that it is more powerful than some, but not that it is less powerful than others. The reason is that ''writing'' in some language means ''thinking'' in that language. Hence the paradox, because typically programmers are "satisfied with whatever language they happen to use, because it dictates the way they think about programs".{{sfn|Graham|2004}}

In a 2003 presentation at an [[Open-source software|open source]] convention, [[Yukihiro Matsumoto]], creator of the [[programming language]] [[Ruby (programming language)|Ruby]], said that one of his inspirations for developing the language was the science fiction novel ''[[Babel-17]]'', based on the Whorf Hypothesis.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rubyist.net/~matz/slides/oscon2003/mgp00001.html|title=The Power and Philosophy of Ruby (or, how to create Babel-17)|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030811071449/http://www.rubyist.net/~matz/slides/oscon2003/mgp00001.html|archive-date=11 August 2003}}</ref>

=== Science fiction ===
Numerous examples of linguistic relativity have appeared in science fiction.

* The totalitarian regime depicted in [[George Orwell]]'s 1949 novel ''[[Nineteen Eighty Four]]'' in effect acts on the basis of the Whorf hypothesis, seeking to replace English with ''[[Newspeak]]'', a language constructed specifically with the intention that thoughts subversive of the regime cannot be expressed in it, and therefore people educated to speak and think in it would not have such thoughts.
* In his 1958 science fiction novel ''[[The Languages of Pao]]'' the author [[Jack Vance]] describes how specialized languages are a major part of a strategy to create specific classes in a society, to enable the population to withstand occupation and develop itself.
* In [[Samuel R. Delany]]'s 1966 science fiction novel ''[[Babel-17]]'', the author describes an advanced, information-dense language that can be used as a weapon. Learning it turns one into an unwilling traitor as it alters perception and thought.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Art of Fiction, No 210 |url=https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/6088/the-art-of-fiction-no-210-samuel-r-delany |access-date=7 March 2021 |work=The Paris Review}}</ref>
* [[Ted Chiang]]'s 1998 short story "[[Story of Your Life]]" developed the concept of the Whorf hypothesis as applied to an alien species that visits Earth. The aliens' biology contributes to their spoken and written languages, which are distinct. In the 2016 American movie [[Arrival (film)|''Arrival'']], based on Chiang's short story, the Whorf hypothesis is the premise. The protagonist explains that "the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis is the theory that the language you speak determines how you think".<ref>{{cite news| title = The science behind the movie 'Arrival'| newspaper = The Washington Post| access-date = 23 April 2017| url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/the-science-behind-the-movie-arrival/2016/11/14/5e344114-a6a7-11e6-ba59-a7d93165c6d4_story.html}}</ref>
* [[Gene Wolfe]]'s four volume science fiction novel ''[[The Book of the New Sun]]'' describes the North American "Ascian" people as speaking [[Ascian language|a language]] composed entirely of quotations that have been approved by a small ruling class.

=== Sociolinguistics and linguistic relativity ===
Sociolinguistics affects some variables within language, including the manner in which words are pronounced, word selection in certain dialogue, context, and tone. It's suggested that these effects<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.collegesidekick.com/study-guides/culturalanthropology/models-of-language-and-culture |website=College Sidekick |title=Models of Language and Culture |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240323004416/https://www.collegesidekick.com/study-guides/culturalanthropology/models-of-language-and-culture |archive-date=2024-03-23 |url-status=live}}</ref> may have implications for linguistic relativity.