Does Your Language Shape How You Think?
Linguistic relativity research
In the twentieth century, the idea linked to Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf suggested that language might shape or even limit thought. The strongest version, that you cannot think what your language has no word for, has not held up.
A word can help a thought along without being its prison.
Russian has separate basic words for light blue and dark blue. In experiments, Russian speakers were slightly faster at telling these shades apart when they fell on different sides of that word boundary. Words can nudge perception, a little.
Small differences in language can produce small, measurable differences in attention.
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