Language limits the way people think. Our language restricts our ability to comprehend our environment. For example: Which comes first, language or thought? | HarvardScience
I dont think that, even if i spoke Korean, I would pay any more attention to objects fitting tightly or loosley together than two other objects fitting together. Pretty sure a college student is gonna get bored sooner than the baby no matter what language they think in.
If anyone is interested in (better examples than engrossed babies, sorry) Language in Mind: Advances in the Study of Language and Though By Dedre Gentner
Verbal abuse is the only time I can think of language hurting anyone. Until we are able to communicate effectively as by using language without using language we will never know.
I've always hated how people make arguements based on wording. I just want to scream that language is just a construct and you can't use definitions as some sort of fact to base logic off of.
Agreed. Language is merely the vehicle in which you use to communicate. Whether that "car" is English, German, or French doesn't really matter. The "size" of the "car" could be slightly different (language translations issues/barriers), but for the most part, "cars" are the same "size" and all go about the same "speed". If language really had that much of an impact on how we think or how it supposedly "limits" our thinking, then I think we would have some overwhelming evidence by now for some particular dialect producing the worlds most intelligent beings.
That's an interesting thought. Just to play devil's advocate: almost all languanges on this planet are from the same language trees. Maybe we just haven't discovered that language that theoretically would "unlimit" our thinking.
Has anyone here ever read Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein? Pretty good book that has something to do with the topic at hand. It is fiction, though. Spoiler Alert: You have to highlight the text to read it. The character Michael was born on the first manned trip to Mars. Once the crew reaches the red planet, everyone but Michael dies in some horrific accident(s). So little baby Michael is brought up by Martians. These Martians are very different than humans, especially in their thought patterns and their language. Throughout the book you realize that Michael has abilities other humans do not, and Michael realizes it is because he was raised as a Martian. He starts a "church" in which he teaches Martian to people, and these people gain the special abilities that were once only attributed to Michael. It is a pretty crazy concept, and a very interesting read if anyone likes science fiction. Heinlein is a great writer.
Not English in particular but the diversity of language in general. What if every human being was able to communicate with each other? I guess they would build a tower in honor of their greatness only to be bitchslapped by a pmsing god...
This is an attack on laws. English laws I guess. Maybe this is a better argument for the no speech thread. If we were all born deaf mutes, some would evolve and learn how to speak and listen.
lmao if your thinking your just talking to yourself and if your talking to yourself your using english the only reason you have a dick is because humans invented english
I don't see how what they described shows their conclusion... Of course college students don't give a shit about that stuff. I think culture is a much greater influence on how people perceive the world. The words we develop in our language are a response to the environment we are in. If we see something we've never seen, we give it a label so we can describe it. If something is culturally important, then a particular group may create a word for that situation whereas another group did not see the need. Germans have a lot of words like that, many of them coming from psychology. Ayn Rand talks about this concept in terms of concretes/concepts, but this is more philosophy than science. However, I don't see much science in that Harvard link either.
I could see how language controls/limit thought. In one way, a word is used to describe a concept of a number of concepts. When we start to consider this concept to be truth, and when we combine it with other words/concepts...our thoughts become controlled/limited. Example: Most people will say their life-goal is happiness. Then they will say things like money doesn't buy happiness; happiness is about being content; happiness is this and not that...etc. And you take all of these concepts and you begin to think your definition/idea of the word is the way things really are. I don't like thinking like that; rather...everything just is, to me. It's not clear-cut like that.