Abstracts Language, Literature, and Linguistic

Differences beyond language: the linguistic relativity debate

by DANIELA CONCATO

open My dissertation investigates the debate concerning the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, called linguistic relativity, which argues that the language we speak shapes the way we think. By examining different scopes, this paper presents the reader with different perspectives from which this theory can be seen. Throughout the three chapters, various aspects of this topic are analysed, taking into consideration studies and experiments carried out in the last few years. Analyses in numerous fields have been conducted, from time and space conceptions to colours and numbers. However, the debate today is still open and further research is being undertaken. To be precise, Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 provide two opposite perspectives, while Chapter 3 investigates the effects of linguistic relativity on bilingualism. The aim of my dissertation is to give a comparative view of these aspects, combining them and enabling a deeper orientation and exploration of the linguistic relativity debate.