SPROGLIG RELATIVISME: Hvordan og hvornår kommer den til udtryk i ontogenesen?

Abstract

The paper is a theoretical and empirical contribution to the debate regarding the principle
 of language relativity in relation to ontogenesis. In the first part of the paper it is argued
 that the division between universal knowledge and culture-specific knowledge which is
 present in the new discipline of cognitive science is based on a false dichotomy. This
 has led to the ignorance of the complementary contributions that anthropology and
 developmental psychology may offer for the investigation of different human knowledge
 systems. The status quo regarding recent empirical evidence that demonstrates how
 language effects cognition is then presented and discussed in terms of ecological validity.
 The second part of the paper presents results from a recent cross-cultural and crosslinguistic
 study that demonstrates the early effect of language on cognition. The study
 investigates Danish (Scandinavian) and Zapotec (Mexican indigenous) infants’ spatial
 cognition with respect to whether this is influenced by the specific linguistic structure of
 each of the two languages. The results show that the two groups of children performed
 in different, language-specific ways to the presented spatial task. Danish children
 expressed a preference for imitating the behaviour of placing one object inside a another
 object, whereas the Zapotec children were equally apt to place the respective objects in
 an occlusive relationship. The results are discussed with regard to whether they give
 support to the Whorfian hypothesis or to the notion of cultural relativity, as reflected in
 the work of Vygotsky.