Summarize the theory behind linguistic determinism.

Linguistic determines derives from the assumption that there is nothing in thinking other than language and it determines and shapes the contours of thought and discursively constructs objective reality which is perceived through it. Among the first who put forward the theory which can be described as linguistic determinism one should mention Ludwig Wittgenstein who claimed in his Tractatus Logico-Philosophical that the ‘limits of my language are the limits of my world’ and ‘about one can not speak, one must remain silent which means that only those language referents that can be found in reality (‘facts’) can be properly expressed in it – everything else is fictitious reality. Thus, according to this point of view, only those words that we possess and the structure of language are the only sources of objective reality cognition. Another perspective going in line with Linguistic determinism is represented by Sapir-Whorf’s statement that the speakers of distinct languages see different numbers and colors of bands in a rainbow, thus, the cognition of the world depends on the words individual possesses. According to semiotics and poststructuralists represented by such authors as Derrida, Bart, Foucault, and others the linguistic structure of language determine the discursive structure of reality and logical instruments of thinking, thus language is initial. In literary theory, linguistic determinism is used to prove such concepts as ‘death of author’ (Bart) and deconstruction (Derrida) which claim that text and textuality represent separate and self-asserting reality. Besides this in modern literature linguistic determinism was often used as a metaphor for power. In Orwell’s 1984 the main aim of Big Brother was to reduce language to the mechanism of obedience in order to prevent opposition to power and liberating thinking.