ABSTRACT
The effects of the language one speaks on thought and perception is studied generally in linguistic anthropology under the rubric of the Whorfian Hypothesis. This hypothesis is described and illustrated in this chapter, and then it is related to how specialized vocabularies serve the needs of the people who create them. Also discussed is the ethnosemantic technique of componential analysis and how it helps the linguist organize lexical data in order to analyze it in terms of the hypothesis. The chapter ends with a discussion of communication in cyberspace and how this might be affecting cognition.
