Re: does conlanging change your sense of reality?

Two things.
One is that I am not verbal from the time I awaken until about half the day.
But I am visual and thinking and can remember 'about' what I was thinking
when I switch over to verbal. Before I go to sleep, I am primarily verbal. I
do my best visual art in the mornings and my best writing and speaking in
the evenings. Part of the time I am both and otherwise, asleep.
Every day, all my life.

The second is that the argument about whether one can express a thought only
or better in one language over another and the notion that language shapes
our thinking only consider linear, denotative forms. Poetry shows that
language is holistic. Meaning in poetry is connotative, which is why it is
so difficult to translate poetry. While I am verbal, I am simultaneously
visual (note the body language here) as well as all the other senses (e.g.
body language is also kinesthetic).

The non-holistic description of language is, IMO, the result of considering
written language as the true form and ignoring how it is used in real life.

I agree with earlier posts that it is easier to think some things in one
language versus another (try math for instance), that any language can
express any thought (but not as easily) and that there is value in this
diversity.

I think that language does shape our thinking (most of us are lazy thinkers)
but we also shape language by what we are interested in communicating. Think
of all the linguistic terms and ways of thinking about language that have
been invented and that have shaped our thinking about language at the same
time.

Kinship terms are another example. In German, I am related to more people
than I am in English and those are two closely related languages. (To J.
Burke: How do speakers of Central Mountain languages speak and think of
kinship?)

Living languages do not have a one to one denotative meaning for utterances.
I think a good conlang should be more than that also.
What do you think?
God bless you all always, all ways,
Paul

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