Language limits thought. Don’t disagree, because you can’t express in
any sensible way a counter argument without coming up against the
barriers of the language that you were intending to use. In general,
language is a very bad tool for expressing thoughts, because languages
have limits in themselves - vocabulary, structure, even the sounds that
can be represented verbally or in writing.
When you hear the Doppler Effect of a motorbike going past, it makes
sense to a part of your brain that says “Look out!”, or some such (or
perhaps “Look there!”). When I use a bland term like motorbike, I’ve not
conveyed that it was the beautiful sound of a hog. If you know nothing
about motorbikes, not only would you not find any motorbike sound
beautiful, but you may not know what a hog is, let alone what it sounds
like. I can’t convey to you the imagination associated with me hearing a
hog go past - the intermingling of freedom & rebellion (&
gratuitous expenditure), or sweaty clothing that’s been lived in, or
comfortable old boots, or pain in the small of the back, or the smile on
the face of the rider who just knows that everyone wants to be him.
Which language you speak modifies the way you think. Concepts in some
languages are easier to express due to a richer vocabulary or practiced
usage. There have been many studies in this area, but usually limited
to comparing how people from different cultural backgrounds are
relatively limited by their language. Others have run pet experiments on
themselves to think in the abstract - in colours or shapes, or simply
in abstract terms. Some have tried to concentrate on thinking in
emotions or images. Many have tried to convey these ideas in writing
(fiction) - but how do you describe the indescribable? That has to be
the ultimate literary skills test. If you can describe the alienness of
thinking in a new paradigm, but still convey a small taste of what it
means to do so, then you have taken the reader beyond their comfort zone
- & willingly.
I remember an Asimov short story that talked about how mankind ‘broke
beyond’ the ten percent of the brain’s potential we currently use, to
discover that a limit had been imposed on us by a superior race. The
first to break through the thought barrier died & set off alarm
bells across the universe.
That thought barrier is language. Being truly multi-lingual or
multi-cultural isn’t enough, because some people can compartmentalise
their brains & switch between aspects. Very few people operate
seamlessly across cultural paradigms, & they are the most likely to
be able to see the limitations of the languages they use & have a
slightly richer communication because of it - but only slightly.
Language is still the barrier in & of itself.
Language should not be limited in this discussion to speech or
writing. There are plenty of other communication forms where the medium
limits the message, or at least shapes it. Whether the message is an
advertisement on TV (short attention span), radio (aural engagement),
billboards (eye-catching), or a presentation in person (with the
presenter) or over the web (without interaction), choice of medium is as
important as content.
Within the media, there are languages used - aimed at demographics,
cultural groups, interests, etc - some of which have assumed knowledge,
or else the opposite, limit themselves specifically to not put an
audience off-side (use baby-talk - like in political advertising). Each
of these choices limits what the message can be. You cannot describe the
impacts of environmental change on TV, for example, because the medium
doesn’t have the language for it; print media do. You can trumpet higher
or lower taxes, because the concepts are ‘simple’ - but you can’t
explain how a tax re-structure works in balance (such as the
introduction of a GST).
Within a business context, you can use some financial graphs in some
meetings - as long as the trend is clearly highlighted - but not where a
pattern is sought to justify a long term strategy - except where that
is the sole purpose of the meeting. A software development team can use a
modelling language to describe their proposed solution in infinite
detail, but that doesn’t help when the audience is the CEO, who’s never
seen UML before.
We keep on building new languages to fit purposes, & generally
have to start from scratch to do so because of the limits imposed by the
current (spoken/written) language, or else to cut across several
languages’ limitations. This doesn’t solve a problem, but compounds it,
building another Tower of Babel (quite literally, attempting to reach
nirvana through adding more structure, only to find ourselves each
speaking a different tongue).
What we need is a less structured language mechanism that allows us
to convey thoughts more purely, effectively, intimately, accurately,
& quickly. It needs to have no barriers inherent, no limitations, no
inadequacies that need to be filled in, & yet be universal &
ubiquitous.
The only barrier-free form of communication is telepathy. I’m still
working on that, but I’m sure I made a dog look up once without calling
it.
No comments:
Post a Comment