Language Meaning and Context

Linguists and anthropologists recognize the importance of language to a culture or people. One theory in understanding the connection of language to culture is to consider language a reflection of reality. Two early linguists, Edward Sapir and his student Benjamin Whorf, theorized that language determines culture. According to their theory, known as the "Sapir-Whorf hypothesis," members of different cultures see the world differently because they draw upon different linguistic categories to interpret it.

Today most linguists and anthropologists would agree that the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is too extreme. That is, it places too much importance on language as a determinant of different world views. Nonetheless, most contemporary linguists would agree that the language people acquire is very important to how they view and organize the world around them. The study of how language at once determines and reflects peoples' world views is called ETHNOLINGUISTICS.