Q.Compare Whorf's view that language determines thought with Piaget's view that thought precedes language, using examples discussed in the chapter.

Whorf held that the language a person speaks shapes what and how they can think (linguistic relativity), while Piaget held the opposite - that thought develops first and language is simply one vehicle for expressing it. …

Benjamin Lee Whorf's linguistic relativity hypothesis holds that language determines the content of thought - in its strong form (linguistic determinism), what and how a person can possibly think is determined by the linguistic categories their language provides. The chapter's example is that Hindi has separate words for a mother's brother, a father's elder brother, and several other specific kinship relationships, while English uses just the single word 'uncle' for all of them; Whorf's hypothesis would suggest that a Hindi speaker might find it easier to think about and distinguish these relationships than an English speaker does.

Jean Piaget took essentially the opposite position: that thought not only determines language but actually precedes it developmentally. Piaget's example is a child who observes another person's behaviour and later imitates it - a process that clearly involves thinking, since the child has to form some internal representation of what was observed, even though no language is involved anywhere in the process. For Piaget, language can be taught, but actually understanding what a word means requires already possessing the underlying concept - thought is basic, and necessary for language to be understood at all. …