Relationship Between Language and Thought: Linguistic Determinism, Independence, or Interaction?

Abstract

The relationship between language and thought has long been a topic of great interest in the field of linguistics, especially in psycholinguistics. Herder, Humboldt, Trendelenbury, Sapir, Whorf, Gui Shichun, Lian Shuneng, and Bao Huinan are some of the well-known scholars who have conducted research on the relationship between language and thought. With regard to the relationship between language and thought, there are three main viewpoints. The first group of scholars, represented by Sapir and Whorf, supports linguistic determinism. Some scholars believe that language and thought are mutually independent. However, others believe that language and thought are inseparable. Beginning from Sapir-Whorf hypothesis and their theory of linguistic determinism and linguistic relativity, this article agrees with the influence of language over thought but refutes the extreme viewpoint of linguistic determinism from several points, proving the independence and mutual influence of language and thought. This article finally concludes that the preferred relationship between language and thought should be that they are independent but interactive.