Describe the relationship between language and thinking by discussing linguistic determinism. In your response, focus on Benjamin Whorf’s linguistic determinism hypothesis and criticisms of it.

Linguistic determinism is a philosophical and linguistic current that maintains that human beings cannot correctly perceive those issues in the world that they cannot translate into words. In other words, only what can be communicated can be understood.

This theory is today reputed to be wrong by many academics. Benjamin Whorf, one of its main theorists, defended the idea that everything that man interprets is the product of his mental construction, which is only sustained through the possibility of shaping said construction through language.

THIS IS SOLID I PROMISE

Explanation:

Linguistic determinism argues that  differences between languages influence the ways people think are perhaps the ways in which whole cultures are organized. Among the strongest statements of this position are those by Benjamin Lee Whorf and his teacher, Edward Sapir, in the first half of this century—hence the label, 'The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis', for the theory of linguistic relativity and determinism. Whorf proposed that, 'We cut nature up, organize it into concepts, and ascribe significances as we do, largely because we are parties to an agreement to organize it in this way—an agreement that holds throughout our speech community and is codified in the patterns of our language"  And, in the words of Sapir: 'Human beings...are very much at the mercy of the particular language which has become the medium of expression for their society. ...The fact of the matter is that the "real world" is to a large extent unconsciously built up on the language habits of the group". As for criticism, Turks are more sensitive to evidence than Americans, but Americans are more aware of death than Turks. Clearly, the hypothesis cannot be supported on such a grand level. Rather, experimental psychologists and cognitive anthropologists have sought to find small differences, on controlled tasks, between speakers of various languages. For example, maybe shapes and structures are just as important. Overall, almost all of our being and culture is composed of language and though and it dictates how we function in society, and that is difficult to dispute.