Re: does conlanging change your sense of reality?

On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 11:15 AM, Gary Shannon <fiziwig@...> wrote:
> However, as long as we remain fooled by the illusion that our inner dialog IS our thoughts,
> then we are also fooled into thinking that the language of our inner dialog molds our thoughts.
> It does not. It only molds our inner dialog, but not our pre-verbal thoughts.

It is possible of course to think nonverbal thoughts, but I don't
think that proves that language has little effect on our thought.
Translating thoughts into a language is quite common, even though it's
not obligatory, and the character of the language used affects the
character of those common thoughts.  We also think much of what we
think based on what we have learned through language from others.

It's possible to think something unsupported by language, in other
words, but it is relatively difficult to sustain such a thought, to
remember it, and very difficult to express it to another person.
Verbal thoughts on the other hand have a substance and tangibility
that gives them a disproportionate effect both on internal thought and
especially on the thought of a society.

The thinking of a society is much more inherently verbal than the
thinking of an individual, and I believe-- in defiance of my own
society's teachings-- that our most important thoughts are collective.
 Personal thoughts are essential to the quality of the human
experience, but until those thoughts are somehow expressed they do not
affect the thinking of others and further the collective thought of
society.

It's not that language directly constrains our thought, then, in my
opinion, it's just that it constrains what we know about our society,
what we know indirectly about the world, what we know about the
thoughts and feelings of those closest to us, and even a fair degree
of what we know and remember about ourselves.  That body of knowledge
is the ground upon which most of our thoughts and actions are founded.

<3,
mungojelly

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