A curious question on linguistics
In my experience of learning basic Spanish, Latin, Italian, French, and German (except for Spanish, when I say basic, I mean as in introductions and 1A class terminology), I've noticed the crazy differences between them. Some things make sense in one language but not in a other, some have gaps in some places where others don't.
Can the language someone speaks somehow limit their thinking? Or at least influence it?
6 Answers
A very interesting question. I have recently done some extensive reading on this topic (actually by accident, as I was researching another psycholinguistic area), and I believe the most famous theory in dealing with your question would be the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which more or less supposes that the way we think and view the world is, to varying degrees, determined by our language (an idea called linguistic relativity). For example, it was thought that since the native American Hopi people do not use past-tense verbs, that they have very limited ability to conceptualize and think in terms of the past or past events.
The nature in which language and thought are connected is constantly debated, however. I think most psychologists today would say that while language influences thought, it does not determine or limit thought to the degree that it was once believed to.
Nevertheless, us second and third language learners have a unique perspective since we are able to see, as you mentioned, some of the more nuanced differences in language. Do these actually create a different way of thinking about a certain idea because a Madrileña says it one way, with certain words, and someone from the States says it in different terms? It's hard to say. Language definitely affects culture, though. That is hard to argue. So the perceived differences in methods of thinking may actually be a reflection of cultural identity.
I could go on but I don't want to bore anyone! Psycholinguistics and Sociolinguistics are fascinating topics, I must say, and they have become even more relevant to me as I continue my study of Spanish.
Best of luck to you!
"“The limits of my language are the limits of my world”, - Wittgenstein
No one is sure how much our language influences our thoughts... I mean in English we make no connection between "Shy" and "shame" (vergüenza) but there is in Spanish.
but at the same time if i say "What a shame!" as in "What a pity!" it would never occur to me that there was any connection between that and the other meaning of shame.
So linguists and psychologists disagree on this, some say that language can play a role in how we think about things, others say that it can't.
I think that within a natural language there aren't really any gaps, it's always possible to explain what you mean.
i don't think hunger feels any different whether you "are hungry" "have hunger" or "hunger is upon you"
In Czech there is no word for "procrastination" but if you explain it to people they are always painfully familiar with the concept!
I read some research recently, sorry I can't find the link, that suggested the intellectual development of Deaf people was limited in the past by insistence that they should use spoken language instead of using sign language as they couldn't think in sounds but were denied the chance to fully develop any other form of communication of ideas. .
Compared to Lector and Encantado, my input is pretty small potatoes, but one thing I'm reminded of is that the geography/climate of a people can determine the development of their language. They say that the Inuit have a score of words to describe "snow," because of the importance of it in their survival and their vast experience of it.
I would love to hear more about this. I feel like I'm getting college credits for free whenever I read what some of youse guys have to say.
I do agree with you, Felixlynx, learning how another culture conceptualizes is mind stretching. One of my favorites is the French term for today; aujourd'hui "to the day of eight" which is simply counting ahead to the eighth day to get the same day of the week.
I've mentioned this before, but an easy way to get an idea of how the First Nations people conceptualized is to look at the site for Native American Sign Language. You can pick up how the Plains Indians viewed the world without having to learn about a dozen separate languages.
Certainly some people feel that one cannot exercise one's imagination except in terms of one's vocabulary. At least one very good science-fiction work was done with the theme that if appropriate groups of people (ones whose ancestry showed aptitude for a given "orientation") were raised speaking only a language designed to promote particular "types of thinking", one could make great strides in engineering, art, military arts, nature studies, etc. This is akin to the "nature vs nuture" notion that even a naturally cruel, nasty person can be brought up to be kind, thoughtful and civil - and vice-versa.
If this notion were strictly true, there would be no new inventions, great philosophical insights, wonderfully practical adjustments or any ability to deal with tremendous catastrophes. We would all be stuck thinking about the best way to dig roots out of the ground, chase down food animals and keep warm and dry all the time, just as our distant ancesters did. We would be unable to "vocalize" an idea such as "Instead of killing all these cows, let's try keeping them tied up or inside a fence, and eat one later." This is pretty obviously not the case. I am reading Pinker's book How the Mind Works and he disparages this idea, and I agree. We are more than our words.
For most people, I believe the answer is yes. Most people think in words. Some people think in abstracts and concepts, but I am not one of them. I believe they are the exceptionally gifted.
If words are limited, I believe thought processes are also limited.
