Linguistic relativism and universalism: some considerations on language and thought

• Autor(a) principal: Sena do Carmo, Leonardo
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Diversitas Journal
• Texto Completo: https://diversitasjournal.com.br/diversitas_journal/article/view/2403
• topic: Relativismo linguístico, universalismo linguístico, linguagem, pensamento, sociedade humana; Linguistic relativism, linguistic universalism, language, thought, human society

Language establishes itself as one of the oldest branches - since Ancient Greece -  of systematic investigation. Thus, it is important to emphasize that language is a frequent object of academic analysis in both the social sciences and the exact sciences, but without a consensual understanding of its "nature". The debate focuses mainly on how language emerges in the species and its relation to human thought. So, we analyze two of the main currents of thought that have undertaken linguistic studies with respect to this issue, such as 1. The school of linguistic relativity; and 2. The school of linguistic universalism. For this purpose, it was fundamental to conduct a bibliographic research - in journals, theses and books - which allowed us to grasp the theoretical approach of both schools. Thereby, throughout this article, we seek to understand the different approaches to the relationship between language and thought, in such a way that we  conduct a general analysis of relativism and then address linguistic universalism. Therefore, the debate about language and its relation with thought is establishes as one of the most relevant elements in the history of human society.