There are many ways in which a language can shape how you think. one way is the amount of words and adjectives we know. the more adjectives we know the more we are able to express ourselves and describe things around us and the more extensive we can think. Another way is the way the language associates with words. for example many languages make objects either feminine or masculine. This makes the language speaker to think as the object in a certain way. Also some languages have different tones for different objects which also effects the speakers thinking about the object. Moreover there are different ways in which different languages describe directions (south, north, west, east or left and right) this affects the way people think and see the environment and the see world.
Can a concept exist without words to describe it?
This can be argued on. however a tribe called Amondawa has a language that lacks any terms that associate with time or space. there are no words for ages or dates or even directions however it does not mean that the people of the tribe do not have a sense of time or space they just did not have technologies such as calenders to make the concept have actual words.
identify the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis and its limits
Sapir Whorf's hypothesis states that 'languages differ essentially in what they must convey and not in what they may convey'. There are many different language spoken around the world and each language is structured differently. This affects our perception on the environment, people, objects and concepts like time and space. it affects our view on the whole world.
No comments:
Post a Comment