NewLanguage

LANGUAGE

'He gave man speech, and speech created thought,
Which is the measure of the universe'
- Prometheus Unbound, Shelley

CATEGORIES: Evolution of Language Language and the Brain WE NEED NEW WORDS!

LANGUAGE, THOUGHT, AND CULTURAL CHANGE Language colors our thoughts and can constrain or expand our view of reality. Often when concepts are new or difficult, our lack of precise and well-defined words prevents us from integrating new concepts easily, or from conveying the ideas and insights we have had. For these reasons, coining new words or finding new concepts in the language of other cultures may be critical to our ability to think and share new thoughts, and to share the useful understandings we have with each other. Borrowed language (whether from science,a group, or another language)necessarily expands the conceptual space in its viewpoint, increases flexibility and allows for further new concept generation. We can all help to bring new words into our cultures, simply by generating, borrowing, or finding them, and using them to make our language more clear and deep. This also helps propagate the new and often difficult concepts it would be useful to wrap our minds around in these times of change. Links to dictionaries of world languages, new words, and other useful linguistic resources can be found at New Language Resources, Past and Future Links on Language and Thought ... the real world is to a large extent built up on the language habits of the group. We see and hear and otherwise experience very largely as we do because the language habits of our community predispose certain choices of interpretation. The worlds in which different societies live are distinct worlds, not merely the same world with different labels attached. --Sapir (1956) "Linguists have understood for decades that language and thought are closely related. Humans construct reality using thought and express these thoughts through the use of language. Edward Sapir and his student Benjamin Whorf are credited with developing the most relevant explanation outlining the relationship between thought and language, the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis." The entire hypothesis is still in dispute: "the anthropological sciences hardly any have found so much attention and led us to so much controversy as have the views advanced by the late Benjamin Whorf": ...the commonly held belief that the cognitive prosesses of all human beings possess a common logical structure which operates prior to and independently of comunication through language is erroneous. It is Whorf's view that the linguistic patterns themselves determine what the individual perceives in this world and how he thinks about it., Since these patterns vary widely, the modes of thinking and perceiving in groups utilizing different linguistic systems will result in basically different world views (Fearing, 1954). We are thus introduced to a new principle of relativity which holds that all observers are not led by the same physical evidence to the same picture of the universe, unless their linguistic backgrounds are similar...We cut up and organize the spread and flow of events as we do largely because, though our mother tongue, we are partes of an agreement to so so, not because nature itself is segmented in exactly that way for all to see. (Whorf, 1952, pg. 21) The Whorfian Hypothesis (scroll down to text) but recent research seems to confirm that the hypothesis is true: The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis: New surprising evidence. by Dr. John R. Skoyles... despite the claims of others, such as Language and Thought 2: Challenges to the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis , or the objections of Pinker and others at Uses of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis page lays out background on linguistic determinism, the Weltanschauung hypothesis, linguistic relativity, Freud, and some other goodies, while the Linguist List on Sapir-Whorf outlines a number of connections between the Whorfian approach and Einstein, David Bohm, and how Native American languages are more suited to an exploration of the subatomic realm. Not to mention quick disses of Pinker and Chomsky. Other interesting linguistic theories include those of Lem Vygotsky: Review and Analysis of Vygotsky's Thought and Language and of Steven Pinker: List of Links and words of Steven Pinker And an excellent page for many linguistic theories, links to important linguists and then works, and more, can be found at Language and Linguistics

ANNOUNCEMENT! TRANSLATORS WANTED!
Obviously for a global dialog, we can't just use English! So please help us by volunteering your services (at whatever level you can manage) at translating or editing translations of this website or parts of it.. thanks!
This page will always be in progress! Please add your word contributions in the form below; if you'd like to help organize this site or otherwise contribute, please email us at valor@global-dialog.org

Participant additions and comments Comments and word additions below are supplied by *you* - we will be checking for useful new words, terms, and phrases to add to a Lexicon of Useful New Words as time allows.. in the meantime, please look here for reader contributions, and feel free to comment too on ways you see that 'New Language' might be organized or propagated for maximal usefulness... -The Editors

Participant Comments follow below

without language, which in physical form exists as a series of patterns repeated in sonic grunts/chords & associatively linked to the five senses or images held in the five senses (and in terms of thinking is imaged sonic grunts in the hearing sense), we woulfd possess little of what we normally call consciousness. Rather we would have a fleeting series of dream like impressions coming and going & only holding for basic instinctive immediacies. Dan Scorpio dan.scorpio@btinternet.com 11/21/03 11:14:46 GMT

Language Cafe: http://www.global-dialog.org/mvd/wLanguageCafe.html or http://www.global-dialog.org/mvd/mvl.cgi?NextName=wLanguageCafe.html Kelly kelly@global-dialog.org 11/13/03 05:24:52 GMT

Cross-Language Text Retrieval Systems A page with cross-language search and translation tools. "This page lists cross-language text retrieval systems which can either be used over the net or obtained from commercial sources. In some cases, papers describing the theory and/or implementation details are also available on these pages." 11/13/03 05:15:04 GMT

This past year at Burning Man, the comment I heard many times from many people including myself, was that words couldn't describe the experience, that language was lacking in adequately expressing that place. If we don't have the words to express BM, what other experiences and genius ideas are out there that we are limited to understand because of the limitations language puts on us? 12/03/02 02:23:47 GMT

Dear Valor, I am interesting in quoting from your site, Whorf: "..all observers are not led by the same physical evidence to the same picture of the universe, unless their linguistic backgrounds are similar...We cut up and organize the spread and flow of events as we do largely because, though our mother tongue, we are partes of an agreement to so so, not because nature itself is segmented in exactly that way for all to see. (Whorf, 1952, pg. 21) However I am wishing to also cite the book or text that the original quote is from for my IB theory of knowledge essay. The quote is obviously from a book, due to the page number that's all. I would greatly appreciate the details of the text, such as publisher, perhaps author (if the book is not by Whorf, but in another book), the year published (if this is different from 1956, and the place of publishing. Thankyou very much. Sally Milner. P.S. I have also sent this to the e-mail address on this page. Sally Milner milnesa@tintern.vic.edu.au 08/09/02 11:53:21 GMT

Here's an excellent language site: Logophilia & the Word Spy New words, definitions, creations A. Harken Alex@global-dialog.org 07/11/02 06:15:51 GMT

I would love to see another verb tense added to the language, to distinguish between human action that is motivated within our animal selves, as opposed to human action that is mitivated within our thinking selves. Much misery is caused by confusion between the two, and the expectation that we behave in a thinking space 24/7. To built the distinction into our language would be a constant reminder that it's okay to be an animal. It might also allow us to structure in more compassion for the non-human animals on the planet, and gain respect for non-human cognition. joe rodgers anansi@scn.org 06/13/02 07:44:13 GMT