Everyday Canvas

Language and Thought

Prompt: “I am still committed to the idea that the ability to think for one’s self depends upon one’s mastery of the language.”
Joan Didion, Slouching Toward Bethlehem: Essays
What are your thoughts on this subject?

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In fact, this may be another chicken or the egg debate.

Yes, I think the kernels of thought can form without the language. Anyone who has raised an autistic child can attest to that. Even watching an average baby grow, we know how they get frustrated when they can’t show us what they want or feel. Therefore, what good is there in thought processes if they cannot be expressed through language?

Don’t most of us sometimes struggle to find the words that adequately describe what we are thinking?

Since my original training is in linguistics, I can safely say that the reason different nationalities have formed different cultures has been somewhat dependent on what they can express through their languages. Because thoughts originate in the brain as the result of perception, their seeds may well be formed before a language is attained.

In return, the depth of the knowledge of language fine-tunes the thoughts and even branches them out in different directions. This is because different languages focus the attention of people on different characteristics of the environment or life in general. As the result, we only have the words for concepts that are important in or relevant to the specific group of people (nations or cultures), and the more we learn, the more we invent new words or borrow certain words and phrases from other languages.