Language and thought

[Perry Lassiter]

From time to time I've heard it said that language influences thought, and that people raised in or accustomed to that language are constricted by its grammar and syntax to think in particular ways. Over many years, I have found only one book that is specific. Thorlief Boman's work Hebrew Thought Compared to Greek focuses on Biblical thought and usage. The biggest concept that stuck with me was that Hebrew words primarily arise from verb roots, so the focus is on action. For example, Exodus twice records God's directions to build the tabernacle, repeatedly using imperative verbs, but nowhere does it say what the tabernacle looked like. A Greek would most likely have described it visually. I can see that. Further, Old Testament Hebrew is terse: check out some of the middle proverbs in several translations to see how differently they can be translated. Does anyone know other works that focus on similar comparisons of two or more languages as related to thought?

[Slava]

Perry,

Did you see this response to your earlier post on the same subject?

[Perry Lassiter]

No, i did not. Thank you.

[Slava]

While it's not about world languages, you might be interested in checking out Lakoff's Metaphors We Live By. It's an interesting dive into how we use words and what the underlying meaning might be.

[Slava]

Here is an article that may well give you some nice starting points. It's on 5 books about language and the mind.

[Perry Lassiter]

Thanks much. You've succeeded in doing in a few minutes what all the good courses in college did in a quarter. Namely, left me feeling there are at least a dozen books I should have read years ago. And the articke was an excellent start, which I intend to follow up on. Thanks again.

[Slava]

Glad to oblige, as that's part of what we're all here for. Good luck with your research. If I see anything else, I'll post it. If it's not a secret, let us know what comes of it all.