linguistic relativity, n.Definitions

Linguistic relativity is the idea that patterns of grammatical structures give rise not to a language prison but to a 'provisional analysis of reality' and habits of mind.

Linguistic relativity forces us to think about the power of words and the relative freedom we have to transcend the world as constructed through discursive practices.

Linguistic relativity is a way of articulating one of the fundamental paradoxes of human life, namely, the need that each individual has to use a shared and predefined code in expressing what are subjectively different experiences.

Linguistic relativity speaks to the core of the anthropological enterprise, to the limits of our ability to understand who we are and what we do.

Linguistic relativity is a forceful argument along the lines of Heidegger's argument; namely that we do not speak language, but language speaks us.