Language and Thinking: Motives of Pinker’s Criticism of Whorfian Linguistic Relativism

Abstract

In The Language Instinct (1995 [1994], henceforth: TLI), a book that despite its popular character has become virtually a classic in discussions concerning the innateness of language, Steven Pinker attacks the broadly understood “Whorfian” standpoint according to which human thinking is influenced in fundamental ways by one’s native language. Due to the status of the author and popularity of the book, it is an influential voice in the ongoing debate on the mutual relation between language and “thought.” Rather than joining this debate, in the present text I would like to examine the construction and integrity of Pinker’s argumentation in TLI. I suggest that this author’s attack on broadly understood interdependence of language and thought is motivated by his general theoretical commitments, rather than by independent evidence.