Slashdot Mirror
One, Two, Many - Language Shapes Thought
Chuck1318 writes "The Piraha tribe in the Amazon has only three words used in counting, that mean one, two, and many. A psychologist testing them has found that they are unable to accurately perform tasks involving quantities as few as four or five. He says that this shows that, at least for numbers, language shapes and limits how people can think." I can't help but be reminded of the gully dwarves from Dragonlance when reading this.
It is meaningful to say that our language informs our thoughts, because, in most cases it's the medium for our thoughts. Whenever someone says, "I understand it, I just can't articulate it," what they really mean is, "I don't understand it." Thought and language, for us, are inextricably linked.
The reverse, however, is also true, in that language evolved for us to be able to express and clarify our thoughts. This logically has to be the case.
This is one of those areas of study where a layman can have no idea of the absurd depth of literature available, or the sorts of ridiculous theories spawned, and yet still be able to say meaningful things because it's all pretty much been wanking. We know very well what the case is, but why?
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.