hold some truths. Language does influence thought and an individual’s perception to some extent. However, I do not believe that language governs thought to the point that an individual’s thoughts are bound by their language. Therefore, I support the weaker version of the Whorfian Hypothesis, Linguistic Relativism.

An example supporting my position is seen through my experience with my best friend who speaks English and Urdu. Whenever she asked me to turn off the lights in a room, she would say “shut the light.” I never truly understood why we had different terms for the same action even though we were speaking the same language. I also noticed this same trend with my other friends who spoke Urdu. When I got older, I realized that when they were learning English they did not have a direct translation in Urdu for the term “turn off” so instead they would use the word “shut.” Although they did not have one particular word or phrase for the English phrase “to turn off” does not mean that they were unable to conceive the thought for completing the action of turning off the lights in a room. If this were the case my friends would have had a very expensive power bill. Another example that proves that language can not completely determine thought is seen in George Orwell’s dystopian novel, 1984. In this book, George Orwell explores the concepts of the Whorfian Hypothesis through the creation of the language “Newspeak.” Newspeak was created by the Party members with the intention to control the speaker’s thoughts and perceptions. As I began to think about Linguistic Determinism, I immediately thought of 1984. In the novel, the Party diminishes the vocabulary so that individuals would be forced to limit the ideas they are capable of formulating and reduce their thoughts to simplistic terms. If this idea were to hold true, people whose language does not have a word for a particular thought would not be able to formulate or express their thoughts in any way. Another example is seen through my knowledge of the English and Spanish languages. The Spanish word “sobremesa” is used to describe the after dinner activities period in which there is no more food on the table, but the people at the table are relaxing or engaging in conversation. Although, there is not a specific word to describe this experience, does not mean that English speakers do not engage in conversation at the dinner table after all of the food is gone.