A study on the relationship between language and thought based on Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

Abstract

Since ancient times, the problem of language and thinking is puzzled those major scholars in philosophy, psychology and linguistics. Although this is a historic and complex problem, the author has discussed and made a further thinking on the relationship between language and thought under the enlightenment of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. As the Bible says, "all things work together." To avoid some deficiencies of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, such as the fuzzy definition of thinking and studying language and thought only from the language perspective, the author explores the relationship between language and thought from a whole perspective. Through analyzing some terms and make a further classification of different thoughts, it is apparent to see that, to some extent, language have nothing to do with thought, and that both the language and thought have more or less influences in several aspects to each other. And then after the discussion on the relationship between language and thought, it is concluded the following three kinds of relationship which are: firstly, the language determines or influences thought; secondly, thought determines or influences thought; thirdly, the extension of thinking goes beyond the boundary of language. In this paper, the author summarizes those three relationships between language and thought, and it is hoped to be helpful to relevant researches in the future.