Language Shapes Thoughts.

pljames · November 20, 2012

I believe language shapes thoughts. When I see a word I understand it's meaning except for synonyms. I feel language is linear. If the sentence is structured to be understood the words make the sentence understandable. But what confuses me is how the brain seems to know from one word how to structure one word then two then the sentence, again the word linear. There is a software called Visual Thesaurus.it takes a word and surrounds it with synonyms. I love language but will never master it. Each person has their own style of writing. I would love to be a method structured writer but I am a freestyle writer.

I am working on my own style combing method and freestyle together. Opinions please. pljames

sman · November 20, 2012

I believe language shapes thoughts.

Well, you’re certainly not alone. Strong versions of linguistic determinism crop up all the time. Something tantalizing about the idea.

Language, it seems, really does effect thinking is some distinct ways. Living here on the PCH I am strongly oriented to the cardinal directions north/south & east/west so that - for instance - when I hear a bit of language coding a local address - northwest 55th street - I am immediately oriented. If, however, I lived in Manhattan cardinal directions would be of little use to me. I would instead think “uptown”, “downtown”, and “crosstown” and orient myself that way without any thought on the other. In this way Manhattanite produces people of slightly different habits of thought than Oregonian.

Now, this is quite watered-down from the exciting, sexy thoughts people usually start with, like that cultures with languages arbitrarily lacking a word for a specific color, like green, maybe can’t contemplate or even “see” that color, or that speakers of languages with no words for numbers beyond “one”, “two”, and “many” are incapable of learning arithmetic. Unfortunately, every stronger version of this language-influences-thought idea (or the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis) has been neatly falsified by experiment.

There are a few good threads here on the subject:

Language Shapes Thoughts?

Language and its influence on thought

Does language shape the way we think?

It's a very popular idea.

I love language ...

Yes, we all love language. We see it, hear it, parse it & produce it whilst our amygdalas pipe warm, fuzzy, tingling feelings into our chemistry & neurology imbibing it with meaning & magic. We do well to remain vigil of our biases toward it.