The relationship between human language and thought has fascinated scholars for centuries, sitting at the intersection of linguistics, anthropology, and cognitive psychology. Popularly known as the Sapir-Whorf (Whorf, 1956) hypothesis, the theory of linguistic relativity proposes that the structural differences in native languages shape how speakers perceive and conceptualize the world around them. Historically, academic and public discourse on this topic has oscillated between absolute interpretations and skeptical dismissals. However, contemporary cognitive science and neuroimaging have moved beyond philosophical speculation, utilizing modern empirical tools to map out how deeply our linguistic habits penetrate the human brain.
言語決定論 (Gengo ketteiron – Linguistic Determinism): The strong framing, which posits that a person’s thoughts, cognitive categories, and worldview are strictly determined and limited by the grammatical structures and vocabulary of their native language.
言語相対論 (Gengo sōtairon – Linguistic Relativity): The weak framing, which suggests that language acts as an influence or bias, guiding how speakers perceive, categorize, and pay attention to elements of the world around them without entirely imprisoning their cognitive capabilities.
Neurocorrelative Studies: Tracing Language in the Brain
In recent years, the debate has shifted from purely behavioral experiments to neuroimaging and computational modeling, seeking the physical neurocorrelates of linguistic habits. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and brain-constrained neural network simulations have begun to illustrate how acquiring and using specific linguistic structures physically reorganizes neural pathways.
Recent neurocomputational models simulating the neural processing of color names have revealed that shared verbal labels (such as a single category encompassing multiple hues) foster overlapping neural representations in frontotemporal-occipital circuits. Conversely, distinct lexical labels drive structural and functional neural separation, modifying how sensory cortex regions respond to visual stimuli before conscious labeling occurs. Furthermore, longitudinal neuroplasticity studies indicate that acquiring a second language induces measurable structural adaptations—such as altered cortical thickness, white matter connectivity, and enhanced intra-hemispheric integration within core language and temporal-parietal networks. Far from dictating absolute cognitive imprisonment, modern neuroscience demonstrates that language dynamically interacts with perception, tweaking the microstructural architecture of the brain to align with cultural and communicative needs (Tomasello et al., 2026).
References
Constant, M., Pulvermüller, F., & Tomasello, R. (2023). Brain-constrained neural modeling explains fast mapping of words to meaning. Cerebral Cortex, 33(11), 6872–6890. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhad007
Gumperz, J. J., & Levinson, S. C. (Eds.). (1996). Rethinking linguistic relativity. Cambridge University Press.
Lera Boroditsky, L. (2011). How language shapes thought. Scientific American, 304(2), 62–65. https://doi.org/10.1038/scientificamerican0211-62
Sapir, E. (1921). Language: An introduction to the study of speech. Harcourt, Brace.
Sapir, E. (1949). Selected writings of Edward Sapir in language, culture, and personality (D. G. Mandelbaum, Ed.). University of California Press.
Tomasello, R., Shaman, K., Dobler, F. R., & Pulvermüller, F. (2026). How language modulates color perception in a brain-constrained deep neural network. iScience, 29(3), 114832. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2026.114832
Tomasello, R. (2026). From neural matter to rapid symbolic learning in brains and artificial neural networks: a brief overview and perspective. Linguistics Vanguard, 12(s1), 173-186. https://doi.org/10.1515/lingvan-2024-0249
Whorf, B. L. (1956). Language, thought, and reality: Selected writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf (J. B. Carroll, Ed.). MIT Press.
