Throughout many of our lectures, the issue of language barriers and restrictions has been brought up. Often, the readings are translations from Spanish which sometimes lose the true meaning of the original version. This topic led me to think about how we are limited in our thoughts, or at least expression of our thoughts, by our native language.
This concept reminded me of the methods of control used in George Orwell's novel, 1984. In the novel a new language, coined Newspeak, is created as a way to limit people's expression of their thoughts and therefore limiting their ability to rebel against the totalitarian government. The novel places a large emphasis on Newspeak and the terrible oppression of communication.
I found a website, http://debatewise.org/debates/250-does-language-control-thought, that discusses whether or not language controls thought. There are many interesting points pin-pointed within this debate which really makes me curious as to whether or not our thoughts are limited by the words which we have available to express them. The website brings up many valid arguments to answer this question such as Inuits having a whole spectrum of words for different types of snow, a concept that English speakers, or any non-Inuit speaker for that matter, may not fully understand. It also brings up contrasting points like the fact that babies and toddlers must have thoughts even before they master language. This debate is one that is much to complicated for us to currently answer, but it is still an interesting topic of which we should all be aware.
No comments:
Post a Comment