Kübra Tufan

Hatice Kübra Arslan

1. Describe the subculture that you investigated.
We investigated trans people in Turkey. Transgender is the name given the individuals who
born into a biological sex but who has a different sexual identity from their biological sex.
2. List the three subcultural terms and their definitions.
a. Lubunya: Transsexual or Feminine gay
b: Cici: Gay
c: Paparon: Police
3. How might having these new terms influence your thoughts or perceptions (linguistic
relativity)? For example, might it be easier now to recognize or to remember the
concepts represented by these terms?
Having these terms influenced our thoughts and perceptions so much. Because we could see
that they created a (nearly) 400-words language for only expressing the things that are
important for their lives. For instance, most of these words are related to sexuality, we
understood that their sexual life is quite important for them. Also, we felt sorry to know that
this language is thought to have emerged in order to not understand the dialogues in public
and private spheres and to survive in this way, and our respect for them has increased.
4. Do you think you would be unable to think about these concepts if you didn’t know
these terms (linguistic determinism)? Please explain.
We think that we could make inference by using context; however, we do not think that we
could fully understand these concepts.
5. What do you conclude about linguistic relativity and linguistic determinism?
Our language affects how we see the world. Societies are shaped by their languages,
languages determine the basis of cultures and thoughts of societies.