The relationship between Language and Thought

[Cassiel]

Internet disease.

Just googled internet disease. Curiosity killed the cat.

A picture of a person who looks more attractive than they usually are, mostly seen in black or with blurish effects. .

Hmmm the picture of my head in my profile fits that description. Big LOL. I swear it was the only one I could find with the right size.

 

[TerryO]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~snip~~~~~~~~~~~~
A friend once told me that English is so limiting (in terms of communicating an exact collection of thoughts) compared to the other languages she speaks.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~snip~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A clear window is a language that conveys every nuance of our thoughts. A murky window gives an unclear, ambiguous message.

Well, it made sense when I wrote it.

Chris

Chris,

The nature of English grammer is such that identifying relationships, etc., is left hanging a bit. OTOH, English has the largest vocabulary of any language with German coming in second, with about half the number of words.

The advantage to this, is that an enhanced vocabulary does allow a variety of nuances to be expressed through the choice of the words used.

Best Regards,
TerryO

 

[pinkmouse]

Just in from the BBC:

BBC News - Language universality idea tested with biology method

 

[Pano]

See? Told you so.

 

[Charles Darwin]

Just found this thread but can't read through all the pages now.

For the OP if nobody else mentioned it I recommend these two books by Steven Pinker:
'The Language Instinct' and 'How The Mind Works'.

 

[PeteMcK]

Latest research:
http://pubman.mpdl.mpg.de/pubman/item/escidoc:95245:15/component/escidoc:848596/Dunn_nature09923.pdf

short version here: languagehat.com

discussion: Language Log Word-order “universals” are lineage-specific?

 

[AKSA]

Hey, Sir John,

What about Sanscrit?

 

[johnferrier]

re:The relationship between Language and Thought

There is a very low relationship which got us to where we are today.

 

[TerryO]

Hey, Sir John,

What about Sanscrit?

Or Basque?
😀

Best Regards,
TerryO

 

[7n7is]

When I read German I usually read it more or less directly into English as best I can, because I have trouble understanding written German without it being translated into English. I can understand spoken German better, though, when I hear it and when I speak it myself, as long as I know the words being spoken. Verstehts?