Abstract

Abstract This chapter reviews the evolution of the linguistic relativity hypothesis and how it was dismissed. The opponents of linguistic relativity misinterpreted the hypothesis itself and research results. With new interpretations and more scientific research findings, the hypothesis has gained rekindled interest in recent years. Empirical evidence for linguistic relativity is reviewed from the perspectives of first language influences on cognition, including color, motion, number, time, objects, and nonlinguistic representations, and from the prism of cross-linguistic influences. The chapter drives the discussion from linguistic relativity to the introduction to script relativity. The chapter ends with the claim that, among other factors that can explain cross-linguistic and cross-scriptal influences, script relativity has the greatest competitive plausibility to explain the consequences of reading.

Highlights

  • This chapter reviews the evolution of the linguistic relativity hypothesis and how it was dismissed

  • Empirical evidence for linguistic relativity is reviewed from the perspectives of first language influences on cognition, including color, motion, number, time, objects, and nonlinguistic representations, and from the prism of cross-linguistic influences

  • The chapter drives the discussion from linguistic relativity to the introduction to script relativity

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Summary

Chapter 3

From Linguistic Relativity to Script Relativity “The very fact that a significant scientific novelty so often emerges simultaneously from several laboratories is an index both to the strongly traditional nature of normal science and to the completeness with which that traditional pursuit prepares the way for its own change.”. Brain imaging demonstrates that the adult brain contains fixed circuitry exquisitely attuned to reading.” - Thomas Kuhn (2012, p. 65) “... brain imaging demonstrates that the adult brain contains fixed circuitry exquisitely attuned to reading.”

The Evolution and Dismissal of the Linguistic Relativity
The Evolution and Dismissal of the Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis
Rekindled Interest in the Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis
Empirical Evidence for Linguistic Relativity
Studies of First Language Influences on Cognition among Various Language Communities
Number
Object
Nonlinguistic Representations
Other Areas
Studies of Cross-Language Influences
From Linguistic Relativity to Script Relativity
From Linguistic Relativity to Script
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