ABSTRACT
This chapter concerns the relation between language and thought. Each conceptual world is essentially the product of the construction, in the process of language use, of a large number of conceptual events over a long period of time. One factor which has contributed to the mystifying character which the language and thought issue has assumed has been the particular model of language structure to which linguistic science has been committed. In this model, all of the features which signal relations among elements in the sentence are seen as associated together in a single system the syntactic system and, furthermore, that system is considered to represent the essence of the language. As regards the effect of grammar on thought, it has been suggested that what have been called the 'compulsory categories' of a language exercise an influence on the thought processes, especially the perception, of its speakers.
