Linguistic relativism in the age of global lingua franca

The following paper poses these questions and conciliates their frequently radicalized answers. On the one hand, it critically revisits the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis and offers a revised theory of linguistic determinism - centered on culture rather than language - which affirms language's ontological non-neutrality. On the other hand, it shows that, within this conception, linguistic diversity can coexist with, and even positively contribute to, the development of a global lingua franca; while simultaneously profiting from a lingua franca's capacity to generate a shared plane where linguistic and cultural distinctiveness is not homogenized and diminished, but rather shines through, enabled and reinforced.