[1][2] Lucy has worked extensively with the Yucatec Maya language, specializing in the system of noun classification.
[3][4] John Lucy is a modern proponent of the linguistic relativity hypothesis.
He has argued for a weak version of this hypothesis as a result of his comparative studies between the grammars of English and Mayan Yucatec.
Thus, if for example, they were shown a cardboard box, English speakers would usually choose a box-like object as the most similar one, whereas Yucatec speakers would prefer to choose any object made of cardboard, regardless of its shape.
[6] Thus, different languages would entail different ways to conceptualize reality, therefore determining a different ontology.