Sort each claim by whether it belongs to linguistic DETERMINISM or the weaker RELATIVITY.
Groups: Determinism (strong) · Relativity (weak)
- You cannot think what your language has no word for
- Thought is fully determined by the grammar of the language
- Grammatical gender nudges how objects are described
- Habitual categories influence what you attend to
- Translation between languages is impossible in principle
Hints
- One column makes claims about what is possible; the other about what is habitual.
- Anything phrased as "cannot" or "impossible" is the strong version.
Show the answer
Determinism (strong): You cannot think what your language has no word for, Translation between languages is impossible in principle, Thought is fully determined by the grammar of the language
Relativity (weak): Habitual categories influence what you attend to, Grammatical gender nudges how objects are described
The strong column is what was abandoned, and it was abandoned for good reasons: speakers coin words, borrow them, and describe things their language has no term for constantly. The weak column is where the surviving evidence lives, and it is a claim about tendencies rather than limits.
Practise Origins, Evolution and Linguistic Relativity
The app has 3 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. Languages I is free to start.
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