How does language form our thoughts?

I woke up today thinking about language and it’s impact on our lives. It seems to me that language inherently both limits and expands our ability to frame thoughts. This is a premise of the book 1984 by George Orwell, in which the powers that be seek to manipulate existing language to remove the ability of people to even express negative thoughts. How powerful language is, when we stop to consider this premise.

When researching this line of thought, I was quite surprised to learn this is a relatively new line of thought. I encourage you to read the whole article, but this piece by Leah Boroditsky sums up eloquently what I struggle to articulate:

What we have learned is that people who speak different languages do indeed think differently and that even flukes of grammar can profoundly affect how we see the world.

I’ve previously blogged about why I think theory matters. Boroditsky expands beyond my post describing theory as a framework, describing a much broader vision of language as a framework for the very essence of thought.

Well worth the read!