linguistic relativity
the observation that languages differ in the ways in which semantic space is identified and categorized. For example, the Native American language Hopi uses one word for water in a natural setting and another word for water in a vessel but has only one word for flying objects, which is applied to birds, insects, airplanes, and the like. Linguistic relativity is not to be equated with linguistic determinism, which is a theoretical commitment to the idea that these differences have cognitive consequences. See anthropological linguistics.