relativity (n.)

A term used to identify an influential view of the relationship between LANGUAGE and thought, generally known as linguistic relativity, which asserts, in its strongest form, that language determines the way people perceive and organize their worlds. This view (of ‘linguistic determinism’) was first expounded by the German ethnologist Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767–1835): in the twentieth century it came to be known as the SAPIR–WHORF HYPOTHESIS.