Abstract

Arguments for linguistic relativity presuppose two entities: language and that which is understood, experienced or perceived in relation to it. For instance, a classic example concerns the way in which the perception of color is partially conditioned by the basic color terms of a particular language. A complication arises, however, when we turn to consider the ways in which a language may shape a speaker’s understanding of social, rather than physical, reality for in such cases that which is relative to language is not, wholly, independent of it. Human social relations, for instance, are constituted in large part through the use of language. These facts necessitate an approach to linguistic relativity in terms of semiotic mediation.