The practical utility and explanatory adequacy of applied linguistic relativism

Abstract

A critical, deflationary analysis is offered of two recently popularised applications of linguistic relativism. The first application concerns the defence mounted via linguistic relativism for national single-language policy, on the assumption that a linguistically homogeneous society is more likely to engender national stability than one which is multi-lingual. Empirical data are assembled that contradict in several ways the argument underlying this social engineering initiative. A second application of linguistic relativism purports to explain economic underdevelopment in certain language communities as a consequence of their dysfunctional beliefs about time. Philosophical work done in analysing the conditions required for ‘radical interpretation’ is marshalled to demonstrate the incoherence of attempting to explain apparent differentials in rates of national economic development worldwide as a function of linguistic relativism.