On Monday Mrs Shockley guided the minds of the Herrick towards a musing on what is arguably (or obviously?) the most important part of English: the words. The discussion centred around three predominant questions: To what extent does language determine our thought? Can you think without language? To what extent is our experience of the world shaped by the words we use?
Wittgenstein famously declared, “The limits of my language are the limits of my world”. Is it true? Can we have no thought without language? Or, as Steven Pinker suggested, do we all have a ‘mentalese’, a language of thought which is expressed in the mind without using words?
Furthermore, are we more adept at recognising phenomena once we know the word for them? A study of Namibia’s Himba Tribe looked into classifications of colour. Their word ‘burou’ conveys some shades of green and blue; whilst ‘dumbu’ conveys some other shades of green, red and brown. Thus, two shades of green which may seem virtually indistinguishable for us make a clear difference for them, primarily due to the words they use to describe them. It would seem to suggest that words have the power to categorise experiences differently depending on what language you speak.
How does language establish and reinforce cultural norms? Dale Spender argues that “‘He’/’man’ makes women outsiders, and not just metaphorically.” We can see this further by the use of ‘marked’ (altered) and ‘unmarked’ (default) words in English. The change of the unmarked ‘actor’ to the marked ‘actress’ emphasises a difference between men and women within the basic words themselves. This is a prevalent example of the way in which words can govern our psychologies and make implicit judgements for us.
Many attended for Divisions to Upper Sixth, exploring ideas from the A-level English language course.
