Linguistic Relativity in the Age of Ontology: How Language Shapes Worldview and Ways of Being, Even Going Beyond the Human

Abstract

This chapter critically reexamines current claims about the diversity of ontological orientations among human societies, while revisiting work on linguistic relativity—the social construction of such lived-realities by means of the symbolism of everyday language. Thus, throughout the Pacific Northwest animals and plants think, as portrayed in popular songs and folktales. No sharp line is drawn between animals and humans, and humans owe a huge debt to their spiritual progenitors among other life-forms. At stake here are current claims about the diversity of ontological orientations among human societies, along with classic claims about linguistic relativity, or the social construction of such lived-realities by means of the symbolism of everyday language: in particular poetry and music as pan-human ways of “painting” mental imagery with ordinary sound.