The Impact Of Sign Language Iconicity On The Structure Of Categorization

The study of the relationship between language, thought, and culture, especially the investigation of linguistic relativity, which is the claim associated especially with the names of Humboldt, Sapir, and Whorf that culture through language, affects the way in which we think and especially our classification of the experienced world (Gumperz & Levinson 1996: 1), has been a scientific hot button in the academic world for centuries. Countless scholars of different stripes-anthropologists, philosophers, psychologists, intercultural communication investigators, and linguists-have attempted to corroborate or refute Whorf's contentions, enhancing the accumulation of the inquiries and works on this topic from various perspectives.Traditionally, the studies of linguistic relativity were conducted mainly in the field of spoken languages, barely touched that of sign languages. As a result, research in linguistic relativity has accumulated an impressive amount of knowledge on the diverse influences of spoken languages on human thought at home and abroad (cf. Lucy 1992, 1997; Gentner & Goldin-Meadow 2003a; Gumperz & Levinson 1996; Lee 1997; Niemier & Driven 2000; Putz & Verspoor 2000; Deng Baoshi & Yang Bo 2005), but tells us little about the impacts...