What You Say?

 

We saw surf music legend Dick Dale perform in cozy local venue nine years ago.  A serious guy, he did little patter, made one joke (not repeatable here) and reminded us that "Thoughts become words, words become actions and actions have consequences."  There are many versions of this (one carrying it further: actions--habits--character), and the basic idea goes back at least as far as the Buddha, two and a half millennia ago.   

So, the words we use -- they are powerful. Amateur linguist Benjamin L. Whorf put forward a hypothesis ("linguistic relativity") that one's language influences and molds one's cultural reality by limiting our thought processes.   For example,  sexism seems built into languages with gender (Romance, that is, Latin-based ones, Hindi and Arabic); the male version of a noun or pronoun is the default.  Think of the term "mankind," or that doctor, actor or nurse have until recently pretty clearly indicated the person's gender who is being spoken of.  

German is well known for its use of long compound terms for precise description.  In this case, though, it is probably scientific and psychological thought which have influenced the language rather than vice-versa.  The Whorf hypothesis is better understood as a correlation or in a reciprocal way than as deterministic, like the old nature vs. nurture debate*.  But think about the corrosive effect of foul language in all-male environments and hip-hop music.  It is like, on a physical level, a neighborhood of empty lots, weeds and broken glass.  Both do clearly have strong negative influence.

The Hopi and Mandarin languages do not have tense.  But those who speak them do indeed know what time is and what is past or present.  So does the world look the same in different languages?  The ancient Greeks did not have a specific word for "blue."  An Australian aboriginal group thought of the sky as black.

   In 1984, Orwell made a strong case that language can and is used as a malignant tool to shape and control what we think:

Speaking of control, it is said that cats have 40 or more vocalizations.  They mostly mean "Feed me," and you had better get up and do it.

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*The subject of one of the Three Stooges' best films.