Does language determine how we think? Or does thinking determine our language? Do our ideas originate first, and then we think of what to call them? Do we have thoughts because of the words we know? Without language, would we be able to think?
Learn a new language and get a new soul.” -Czech proverb
- What are thinking and language in psychology?
- What is the relationship between thinking and language?
- How important are thinking and language?
- What are some examples of how language impacts thinking?
Thinking and Language in Psychology
Linguist Benjamin Lee Whorf asked questions like the above and developed a hypothesis about them. Whorf believed that language influences the way that we think. He said that without verbs, we wouldn't be able to think about things in the past. Whorf called this concept linguistic determinism. Think about it for a moment. Can you tell me what you did yesterday without using a verb?
Linguistic determinism means that language or words (linguistics) determine how we think.
Language is the tool we use to convert thoughts, ideas, and cognitive processes into words and communicate them to others. Whorf indicated in his theory that there is a natural logic to thinking and language. He said that talking is a consequence of wanting to communicate, but talking is not a natural consequence of thinking. Is this correct? Is thinking possible without language, or can we believe even if we can't communicate our thoughts? Let's dive deeper into the relationship between thinking and language.
Fg. 1 Language is the tool we use to convert our thoughts, pixabay.com
The Relationship Between Language and Thinking
According to today's psychological understanding, Whorf's hypothesis is considered extreme and somewhat incorrect. It is possible to think of something without knowing what to call it (language). Think about colors. You can think about them without words for specific colors.
The question of the relationship between thinking and language becomes a bit more complicated when you consider those who are bilingual. What if you know more than one word for the color red? Which one do you choose? Different languages embody different ways of thinking.
Bilingual refers to someone fluent in two languages. "Bi" means two, and "lingual" refers to words or language.
In one study, participants who were Chinese bilingual students at the University at Waterloo in Ontario were asked to describe themselves in both English and Chinese. The results showed that the descriptions in English were positive depictions while the Chinese descriptions contained both positive and negative depictions. How we describe ourselves and the world changes depending on our language!
The English language and the Japanese language reflect inherently different ways of thinking. English vocabulary is heavily focused on personal emotions. Japanese vocabulary is heavily focused on relational emotions.
There is also a correlation between knowing more language (having a larger vocabulary) and intelligence. The more language we learn affects the speed that our mind is able to work. More language equals a faster brain! Having increased learning of language lets the mind respond more quickly to a multitude of situations.
This is the same logic that tells us why children raised bilingually often have an easier time learning other types of information.
The Importance of Language and Thinking
Language is not the sole determining factor in the way that we think, but it is undoubtedly an influence on our thoughts. Language is great for creating categories to help us understand things like numbers and colors. Looking at other cultures and their languages can help you better understand the influence of language on our thoughts.
There is a shared word for blue and green in the Japanese language. Of course, Japanese speakers can discern which color is being mentioned based on contextual factors, but the term to describe both colors is the same. A contrasting example is the Russian language, where there is one word for several shades of blue. How a language conveys colors influences how we think about colors!
Fg. 2 What colors would you say are in the photo?, pixabay.com
Language and thinking are like a two-way highway of information. The more we develop and expand our language abilities, the more we also expand our cognitive abilities. This is one reason that reading widely is highly encouraged! Smart people are often well-read people. Language helps us communicate, conceptualize, and understand abstract ideas like happiness, truth, independence, and honor.
Those who are bilingual have the advantage of a wider vocabulary, which translates into more knowledge. Those who know more than one language can inhibit one language while using a different one. This demonstrates executive control over language and also shows the abilities of cognitive attention and focus.
Examples of the Effects of Language on Thinking
While colors and descriptive vocabulary are great examples of language's impact on thinking, there is another interesting example to consider. Would you believe that describing time can also differ based on your language? English speakers typically refer to events in duration or length of time ("That was a long movie"). Spanish speakers typically refer to amounts of time using words such as "little" or "big" in the description ("That was a big movie"). How a language describes time reflects how individuals in that culture think about time.
Grammatical gender is the classifying of nouns using a specific form of noun class system.
As an English speaker, this can be confusing. A concept referred to as grammatical gender is another amazing example of how language impacts thinking. In Spanish, the word for "table" indicates gender (la mesa is feminine). Japanese uses a different grammatical structure because there is no gender associated with objects in that language.
Fg. 3 Does this table have gender in your language?, pixabay.com
In another study, the researchers asked Spanish and German speakers to describe a specific object. The researchers wanted to see if the way the speakers described the object would differ significantly based on gendered aspects of language. The object was a key, considered masculine in German and feminine in Spanish.
When asked to describe the object in German, the words used were considered masculine descriptors ("heavy", "hard", and "jagged"). The opposite was true in Spanish, where words such as "intricate" and "little" were used to describe the very same object. This is an example of how language changes and influences how we think about and describe objects!
Thinking and Language - Key takeaways
- Linguistic determinism means that language determines the way that we think.
- Language is the tool that we use to convert thoughts, ideas, and cognitive processes into words and communicate them to others.
- Different languages embody different ways of thinking.
- Language is not the sole determining factor in the way that we think, but it is certainly an influence on our thoughts.
- Language and thinking are like a two-way highway of information. The more we develop and expand our language abilities, the more we also expand our cognitive abilities.
- Those who are bilingual have the advantage of a wider vocabulary, which translates into more knowledge.
- The grammatical gender of a word changes how a speaker thinks about and describes an object.
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