Does Your Language Shape How You Think? by Guy Deutscher

Weekly Reading and Journal Entry
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Weekly Reading and Journal Entry
Does your Language Shape How You Think?
Guy Deutscher, the author of “Does your Language Shape How You Think?”, discusses the theory presented by Benjamin Lee Whorf regarding language and how our mother tongue serves as a “prison house”. Whorf described it as such because he believed that the diversity of words in a language dictates the scope that the speaker of that language can think and process, thus becoming a limitation. This theory of Whorf was then proven to be lacking any proof to be considered valid. Deutscher then provided extensive information to argue that language does influence the way we think “not because of what our language allows us to think but rather because of what it habitually obliges us to think about” (Deutscher, 2010). He provided supporting details such as tenses and gender of language, not restricting the individual’s understanding and capability of a broader concept.
I believe that Deutscher’s theory is more accurate than Whorf’s claims. Aside from the evidence and studies that favor Deutscher’s view, Whorf’s restricting claim is hard to accept, even with just common sense. Language from different places all over the world has unique sets of rules which dictate the formation of words and sentences, in hopes of conveying the accurate meaning. These rules and formation of words are influenced by the culture and history of the place, w...