Day 24 of 150 Language Difficulty 6/10
Weak Sapir–Whorf: language nudges thought without trapping it
Quick answer
Weak Sapir–Whorf: language nudges thought without trapping it. Today's question (Linguistic relativity) asks about a finding from Boroditsky, L. in 2001. The correct option is Cognition's tendencies, not its limits — full explanation, primary source, and glossary cross-links below.
Today's question
The "weak" Sapir–Whorf hypothesis claims language influences:
Reveal the answer and explanation
Correct: B — Cognition's tendencies, not its limits
The strong Sapir–Whorf claim (language determines thought; speakers of different languages cannot share concepts) is not supported. The weak version — defended in modern form by Boroditsky and others — claims grammatical structure (gendered nouns, spatial frames of reference, time metaphors) biases attention and memory in measurable but bounded ways. Speakers of languages without ego-relative directions outperform English speakers on absolute-direction tasks.
About the source
Boroditsky, L. (2001). Does language shape thought? Mandarin and English speakers' conceptions of time. Cognitive Psychology, 43(1), 1–22.
Every Cognition Bible question cites a primary source — a paper, book chapter, or monograph that exists, that we can point to on Google Scholar, and whose finding the question accurately summarizes. No fabricated authority strings, no name-drops without paper-level grounding.
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