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Jul 26, 2016 · This article outlines the history of empirical research on linguistic relativity, surveys current research, and appraises critically the trends of the past decade, highlighting conceptual and methodological issues.
- John A. Lucy
- 2016
Empirical research on linguistic relativity faces three methodological challenges. First, it must identify and characterize a language contrast where the semantic structures of different languages produce distinct referential interpretations.
Aug 12, 2022 · Is there truly evidence of linguistic relativity? Does language serve as the primary moderator of thought, or do cultural influences play a more pressing role in cognitive thought processes for a given group?
We identify seven categories of hypotheses about the possible effects of language on thought across a wide range of domains, including motion, color, spatial relations, number, and false belief understanding.
- 200KB
- 13
- APPROACHES TO EMPIRICAL RESEARCH
- Structure-Centered Approaches
- Domain-Centered Approaches
- Shifting Burdens of Proof
- TOWARD A THEORETICAL ACCOUNT
- CONCLUSION
Among the studies meeting the above criteria, there have been three ap-proaches to research depending on which among the three key elements at is-sue (language, reality, thought) serves as the central orientation or point of de-parture for the investigation: structure-centered, domain-centered, and behavior-centered. With enough thought and labor, ...
GENERAL difference between languages in their structure of meaning. The analysis char- APROACH A structure-centered approach begins with an observed acterizes the structure of meaning and elaborates the interpretations of reality implicit in them. Then evidence for the influence of these interpretations on thought is sought in speakers behavior. Th...
GENERAL APROACH A domain-centered approach begins with a certain do-main of experienced reality and asks how various languages encode or con-strue it. Usually the analysis attempts to characterize the domain independ-ently of language(s) and then determine how each language selects from and organizes the domain. Typically, speakers of different lan...
The research reviewed here indicates that the linguistic relativity proposal can be practically and profitably investigated in a number of ways. The linguistic variables range from small sets of lexical items to broad grammatical patterns to functional aggregates of features. The cognitive variables include the func-tional organization of perceptio...
Empirical demonstrations of the types just described move the linguistic rela-tivity hypothesis from the realm of speculation to the realm of concrete investi-gation, but they are not equivalent to providing a theoretical account. Such an account must specify the conditions and mechanisms leading to relativity ef-fects, that is, give further conten...
The range of materials relevant to providing an adequate theoretical account of linguistic relativity is daunting. An account has to deal both with the underly-ing processes upon which all language and thought relations are necessarily built and with the shaping role of discourse as it is implemented in social insti-tutions and cultural traditions....
- 260KB
- 24
Time also merits more research with respect to the linguistic relativity/universalism debate, language acquisition, and language modelling in computational linguistics, as well as theoretical and applied contrastive studies.
People also ask
What are linguistic relativity studies?
Does time merit more research in linguistics?
Is linguistic relativity the same as linguistic diversity?
Is linguistic relativity a weaker form of linguistic determinism?
How can linguistic relativity be investigated?
Can linguistic relativity crosscut cultural relativity?
Linguistic relativity studies investigate effects of one’s native or habitual language patterns on non-linguistic cognitive processes. Many of these studies have fallen outside of the mainstream research paradigms.
