The linguistic relativity hypothesis suggests that ______. one's language determines the pattern of one's thinking and view of the world one's thinking and view of the world determines the structure of one's language we decide which objects belong to a concept according to what is most probable or sensible, given the facts at hand perception of surface structure precedes deep structure in understanding a sentence perception of concepts precedes understanding of the members the group that comprise the concept

The principle of linguistic relativity postulates that the way in which a language is structured affects the cognition of its speakers - which directs, inhibits and shapes their worldview. It is also known as the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is commonly divided into two versions: one more extreme and one less extreme; or it can be understood as being part of a spectrum. I prefer to think of it as a spectrum.

At one end of the spectrum, the theory states that language determines cognition. It is also known as linguistic determinism. Linguistic determinism proposes that linguistic categories limit and determine cognitive categories - in other words, the way we think is a product of the language we speak, and our language can allow or prevent us from thinking in certain ways. At the other end of the spectrum, the theory holds that language only influences cognition, but does not determine it - so the way we think is guided by our language, but we are able to think in ways that are not always determined by our native language .