Sapir- Whorf World

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AReading Spell of the Sensuous, I couldn't help but think about the Sapir- Whorf hypothesis- a leading theory in how language and our minds work. Two scientists of the early 90's discuss how language influences our view of the world and ourselves. They argue that human beings do not live in society alone and therefore the language of the society we are in predisposes certain choices of interpretation about how we view the world. Whorf also says that we dissect nature along lines laid down by our native languages. We categorize objects in the schema laid by the language and if we do not subscribe to these classifications, we cannot communicate.


Translations between one language and another is at the very least, problematic, and sometimes impossible. There are so many phrases in Bosnian that I do not know how to communicate in English to my friends, I try to find words to communicate it but the connotations and tone that accompany them will never be the same as they are in Bosnian. It often feels frustrating, and this feeling continues into the idea that we can never truly understand each other.

There is a close relationship between language and thought. Language may not determine the way we think but some argue that it does influence the way we perceive and remember and and it affects the ease with which we perform mental task. Culture influences language acquisition from the very early stage through the entire developmental process and aids the process of turning an individual into an agent of culture. Culture has a powerful influence on verbal and non verbal encoding and decoding processes and therefore controls how we perceive the things we hear. We all come from different experiences and they are constantly changing just as how society is always changing. These changes correspond with linguistic change, but also then the way we perceive the world.

Abrams speaks on how we communicate and how it is not solely through language, but through the energy of the words and even through non-verbal methods. These things help us communicate with others more efficiently, but our consciousness is beyond what we can comprehend or what we even have access to, as he touches on. This soothes some of my never-ending thoughts on our inability to share what is exactly on our minds and on how our thoughts develop and how we may just be shoving our thoughts into the language our society has given us. That last part sounds cynical, but I need you to know it's okay and that I gained so much comfort in reading about ways beyond language we can communicate with each other and how are consciousnesses are so deeply intertwined.


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