1.Based on your own knowledge of one or more languages, can you think of examples of ways in which language c

Question

Based on your own knowledge of one or more languages, can you think of examples of ways in which language can influence perception and thought?

Answer 1

EXCELLENT question. One example takes us back to the middle ages and the Italian word for "left" (as in opposite of "right"
Sinistro, the same route word for Sinister, means left in Italian. Left-handed people were thought to be in league with the devil.

That brings to mind the modern term RIGHT WING. I'm sure it means CORRECT wing to some people. Language usage and perception!

Answer 2

A lot of people have pointed out how a language names things or concepts illustrates or influences differences in perception. (To add one to that, German also has two different words for "know," with the same distinction.) So I'll try to go a different direction.

How words are formed and put together seem to be influenced by, and influences, perception. For example, in German, words for a bigger concept are built by stringing together words for smaller concepts. A simple one is "bahn" (way or course) put together to make autobahn (highway - literally way for cars). English does this, too, in a lot of instances. I don't speak Chinese, but I have heard that their characters are developed to visually represent a word. That to me is a completely different approach to language and suggests a very different way of thinking.

On a different level, how words are put together into sentences also suggest priorities in thinking. In English, German, and I believe other Germanic languages, the adjective goes before the noun; in French the noun goes first. (Try thinking about to see the difference - think of a blue hat, then a hat that is blue - superimposing a color onto hat is different than a shape onto a color.) Similarly, seems many languages other than English put the verb at the end of the sentence. I'm not sure what exactly it says about perception, but it was difficult for me when trying to learn other languages, because I couldn't grasp all the descriptions of the action (prepositional phrases and whatnot) without knowing what the action is.

I'm sure people with more language skills would know better examples.....

Answer 3

Surely. Take a look at Russian Eskimos - they had over 20 terms to depict snow, but no words for "culture", "government", etc. ...
Language gives one who is born within its language zone the basis for thinking - and comprehending the world.
I can tell myself - thinking in Russian and translating my thoughts into English (French, Japanese, Ukrainian, etc.) changes the idea of phrase.
For example, in Japanesse there's no regular kind of plurals and no "perfect" future tense... how should I say perfectly correct in Japanesse "В будущем я увижу новых людей" ... :-Х
It's all a mystery :)

Answer 4

That's an awesome question, and I'm always wondering about it. In Spanish, there are two words for "to know": saber, and conocer. Saber is like, to know something, a fact. Conocer is sort of to be familiar with somthing, like to know a person. I confuse them a lot when I speak Spanish because you have to change the way you think about the things you know before you say that you know something or someone. Ser and estar are another example in Spanish, they can both mean "to be," but they mean it in different ways. That's also usually confusing for native English speakers because when we say that something is hard, for example, we don't stop to think whether it is always that way, or if it's just that way for you right now. In Spanish you would use ser or estar accordingly. In English, we would have to explain it a little more with more words and sentences, whereas in Spanish, you would know if something is temporarily hard or always hard just by the choice of the verb used by the speaker. Great question, and I look forward to the other answers.

Added later: Another thing that I thought of is, why are things not different in different languages? I phrased that horribly, so let me elaborate: In English we have a lot of colloquial ways of saying things: "This book says..." Books don't actually say things. "You can tell by his wardrobe that he likes red..." Who are you able to tell, exactly? "This is a hard book to read" Hard like a rock? How does that affect your ability to read it? I'm always amazed that in Spanish, you can say these things in exactly the same colloquial way. Books say things in Spanish, too. You can tell something now that you ahve information in Spanish, too. And things can be physically hard, like a rock, or hard as in difficult with the same word in Spanish, as well. I think that's really interesting, and it points to some formations of thought that transcend language... unless they are colloquial ways of saying things that simply have been passed from these two languages... Just a thought.

Answer 5

with a different language comes a different culture.different cultures have different perceptions as far as value systems and mores. for examples latins celebrate "quinces" the 15th birthday of a young girl, the americans celebrate "sweet 16's'. to the latin culture, a girl shouldnt even consider dating until then, whereas in american culture , kids are dating early in their life.

Answer 6

The Australian Aboriginees have only one word for anything that flies. A bird, an insect, a plane, a person riding in a plane. All described by one word.

Answer 7

PRIOR TO THE 20TH CENTURY--THE JAPANESE HAD NO WORD FOR TIME---PAST--PRESENT--OR FUTURE.