The Whorfian brain: Neuroscientific approaches to linguistic relativity

ABSTRACT

Modern approaches to the Whorfian linguistic relativity question have reframed it from one of whether language shapes our thinking or not, to one that tries to understand the factors that contribute to the extent and nature of any observable influence of language on perception. The current paper demonstrates that such understanding is significantly enhanced by moving the evidentiary basis toward a more biologically grounded empirical arena. We review recent neuroscientific evidence using a variety of methodological techniques that reveal the functional organisation and temporal distribution of the ubiquitous relationship between language and cognitive processing in the human brain.

KEYWORDS:

• Language
• perception
• categorization
• linguistic relativity
• Whorf

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).