On 07/04/2013, at 1:48 PM, Tristan Slominski <tristan.slomin...@gmail.com>
wrote:
> a lot of people seem to have the opinion the language a person communicates
> in locks them into a certain way of thinking.
>
> There is an entire book on the subject, "Metaphors We Live By", which
> profoundly changed how I think about thinking and what role metaphor plays in
> my thoughts. Below is a link to what looks like an article by the same title
> from the same authors.
>
> http://www.soc.washington.edu/users/brines/lakoff.pdf
>
>
Having studied linguistics, I can tell you there are MANY books on this
subject. I can point to at least the following reference work on the topic:
http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/language-thought-and-reality
I wasn't interested in this discussion. I would agree that semi-educated
ordinary man definitely thinks in language and it definitely shapes the
thoughts that they're capable of, however what I'm talking about is really only
found in people who speak more than two other languages than their "native"
language, and/or in languages not touched by that "modern culture" (such as the
Australian Aborigines "dreamtime" metalinguistic awareness).
I guess my question mostly relates to whether or not learning more languages
than one, (perhaps when one gets to about three different languages to some
level of proficiency and deep study), causes one to form a pre/post-linguistic
awareness as I referenced in my original post.
I think learning only one language is bad for people who want to understand
each other, and the same thing with programming languages. Less than 3
languages doesn't allow one to "triangulate" meaning very well, perhaps even
properly.
Julian
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