Language and thinking
Language affects thought. I think... the article looked pretty convincing to me. And I know from experience that it's really hard to see a difference when you don't have the language to identify the difference - or to see it as a real difference anyway, a significant difference, and not just hair-splitting.
So how is my thinking tilted by the fact that I think in English with its multitudinous tense and moods for verbs? "Would that he had been jumping!" for example. Or even "I will have eaten breakfast." Any ideas as to how thinking might differ in a language that doesn't put such huge emphasis on relative time and mood? Would it be as straightforward as having a different way to view causality, or the past and the future?
This entry was originally posted at http://heliopausa.dreamwidth.org/18775.html. Please comment here or there.
So how is my thinking tilted by the fact that I think in English with its multitudinous tense and moods for verbs? "Would that he had been jumping!" for example. Or even "I will have eaten breakfast." Any ideas as to how thinking might differ in a language that doesn't put such huge emphasis on relative time and mood? Would it be as straightforward as having a different way to view causality, or the past and the future?
This entry was originally posted at http://heliopausa.dreamwidth.org/18775.html. Please comment here or there.