How does our language affect our way of thinking?
Do we all use some kind of "mental-language" and use English or another language as a tool to express those ideas? That would explain why you sometimes exactly know what you want to say but can't find the words.
I read an article in a "newspaper" by an university in Holland which said that English and German people have different ways of looking at a picture. The picture showed some people walking along a way. English speakers looked at the people on the picture whereas German people mainly looked at where the people on the picture were going. They said that that was due to German grammar where the verb is most often at the end of a sentence.
Another example of how our language might controle us is in languages without words for left and right. Guugu Yimithir speakers wouldn't say "This is my right arm", they'd maybe say "This is my southern arm". Those people have a whole different way of orientation and feeling for it.
This would mean that our language somehow constricts our thoughts.
Could we become more clever if we learned to think in other languages? If yes, which is the most clever language?
How do deaf people think? Sign language?
Do we all use some kind of "mental-language" and use English or another language as a tool to express those ideas? That would explain why you sometimes exactly know what you want to say but can't find the words.
I read an article in a "newspaper" by an university in Holland which said that English and German people have different ways of looking at a picture. The picture showed some people walking along a way. English speakers looked at the people on the picture whereas German people mainly looked at where the people on the picture were going. They said that that was due to German grammar where the verb is most often at the end of a sentence.
Another example of how our language might controle us is in languages without words for left and right. Guugu Yimithir speakers wouldn't say "This is my right arm", they'd maybe say "This is my southern arm". Those people have a whole different way of orientation and feeling for it.
This would mean that our language somehow constricts our thoughts.
Could we become more clever if we learned to think in other languages? If yes, which is the most clever language?
How do deaf people think? Sign language?
