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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?
Linguist Benjamin Lee Whorf asked questions like the ones 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.
Linguistic determinism means that language or words (linguistics) determine 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. 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 think even if we can't communicate our thoughts? Let's dive deeper into the relationship between thinking and language.
According to today's psychological understanding, Whorf's hypothesis is considered extreme and somewhat incorrect. It is very 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 who is 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. The way we describe ourselves and the world changes depending on the language we use!
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.
“Learn a new language and get a new soul.” -Czech proverb
Language is not the sole determining factor in the way that we think, but it is certainly an influence on our thoughts. Language is great for creating categories to help us better 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.
In the Japanese language, there is a shared word for both blue and green. Of course, Japanese speakers can discern which color is being mentioned based on contextual factors, but the word to describe both colors is the same. A contrasting example is the Russian language, where there is one word for several different shades of blue. The way a language conveys colors influences the way that we think about colors!
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 they are using a different one. This demonstrates executive control over language and also demonstrates the abilities of cognitive attention and focus.
While colors and descriptive vocabulary are certainly great examples of the impact of language on thinking, there is another interesting example to consider. Would you believe that describing time can also be different based on the language you use? 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"). The way a language describes time reflects how individuals in that culture tend to think about time.
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 includes an indication of gender (la mesa is feminine). Japanese uses a different grammatical structure because there is no gender associated with objects in that language.
In another research 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, which is 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!
The relationship between language and thinking is that language influences our thoughts.
Language affects thinking through expanding our cognitive abilities, our vocabulary, and our knowledge.
Thinking is influenced by language, but neither determines the other.
Thinking, learning, and language are interrelated because they all deal with cognition.
Thinking is possible without language, but language provides a way of communicating our thoughts.
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