Linguistic Relativity (Sapir-Whorf Hypotesis)

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Linguistic relativity is a general term used to refer to various hypotheses or positions about the relationship between language and culture.  

For Sapir, linguistic relativity was a way of articulating what he saw as the struggle between the individual and society. In order to communicate their unique experiences, individuals need to rely on a public code over which they have little control.

Whorf —believed that ways of thinking may develop by analogy with ‘fashions of speaking,' a concept that was later revived by Hymes's notion of `ways of speaking.'

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Sapir and Whorf's ideas about the unconscious aspects of linguistic codes continued to play an important part in the history of linguistic anthropology, and reappeared in the 1980s in the context of a number of research projects, including the study of language ideology.