thought and language.

About thought and language

The study of how language influences thought and vice versa has a long history in a variety of fields. There are two bodies of thought forming around the debate. One body of thought stems from linguistics and is known as the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis. There is a strong and a weak version of the hypothesis that argue for more or less influence of language on thought. The strong version, linguistic determinism, argues that without language, there is and can be no thought, and the weak version, linguistic relativity, supports the idea that there are some influences from language on thought. On the opposing side, there are 'language of thought theories', which believe that public language is not essential to private thought though the possibility remains that private thought when infused with inessential language diverges in predilection, emphasis, tone, or subsequent recollection. Those theories address the debate of whether thought is possible without language, which is related to the question of whether language evolved for thought. These ideas are difficult to study because it proves challenging to parse the effects of culture versus thought and of language in all academic fields.