【正确答案】Linguistic determinism is a theory developed by Benjamin Lee Whorf who was influenced by Sapir. It suggests that our language helps mould our way of thinking and consequently different languages may probably express speakers' unique ways of understanding the world. Following this argument, two important points can be captured in this theory. On the one hand, language may determine our thinking patterns; on the other similarity between.languages is relative. For this reason, this hypothesis has alternatively been referred to as Linguistic Determinism and Linguistic Relativity. In a loose sense, linguistic determinism, linguistic relativity, and the Sapir- Whorf hypothesis can be regarded synonyms.

【答案解析】[解析] 此题考查的是考生对社会语言学中的语言决定论的理解。沃尔夫受萨丕尔的影响，提出了著名的“萨丕尔一沃尔夫假说”。该理论认为，语言塑造了我们的思维模式，相应地，不同的语言表达决定了人们认识世界方式的不同。从这个观点出发可以得到两点认识：一方面，语言可以决定我们的思维方式；另一方面，语言之间的相似性是相对的，结构性差异越大，反映出对于世界的认识越不同。因此，这个假说也被称为“语言决定论”、“语言相对主义”。宽泛地说，“语言决定论”、“语言相对论”、“萨丕尔—沃尔夫假说”可以看作同义词。