Re: does conlanging change your sense of reality?

--- On Tue, 3/31/09, Paul Kershaw <ptkershaw@...> wrote:

>
> But while I agree with Gary that language does not create
> impenetrable walls for thought, it does change
> accessibility; it's easier to think about something in a
> rational manner if there are words in which to set the
> thought.
Also, I find it easier to remember things, and recognize things if I have words
for them. For example, when I was a kid I loved to work large jigsaw puzzles. When
I had a particular empty spot of a particular shape I found it easier to search
for a piece with the same shape as the empty hole if I gave names to all the
possible jigsaw puzzle piece shapes. That way I could look through the box of
pieces for the required shape "by name".

I also found it easier to recognize a particular species of bird once I had
learned the NAME for that species of bird. The name/word definitely serves as a
memory tag to aid in matching and retrieval.

--gary

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