Language Differences In Human Language

Language is, “The method of human communication, either spoken or written, consisting of the use of words in a structured and conventional way” says the Oxford dictionary. Individuals who express themselves in divergent languages do in face think differently. In addition even grammar can immensely impact how we view the world. This is in adherence with the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis also known as linguistic relativity, which states that there are “certain thoughts of an individual in one language that cannot be understood by those who live in another language.” Language is an exceptional form of communication which is unique to our experience as a human being. Appreciating the role of language is establishing our ideas and views brings us nearer

Around one-third of the world’s languages consider spaces in these ‘absolute’ terms rather than the ‘relative’ ones we use in English, according to Boroditsky.

Even basic aspects of time perception can be affected by language. English speakers would refer to the time span in terms of length, ‘That was a long meeting,’ or ‘That was a short, quick meal,’ while Spanish and Greek speakers depend on terms of amount such as, ‘much’, ‘big,’ rather than ‘short or ‘long.’

Languages also interfere in elementary aspects of visual sense perception which is our ability to distinguish colours. Varied languages split up the colour spectrum differently; some make more distinctions and have a greater vocabulary for the various shades than others and the borders most often don't add up across languages. In Russian there is no single word that covers all the colours that English speakers call "blue." Russians make a distinct demarcation between light blue (goluboy) and dark blue (siniy). For English speakers, all the shades of blue are still designated by the same word,

Steven Pinker’s theory opposes the fact that language does not confine one’s thought. “Infants who have not yet developed language skills have been shown, through experiments, to have thoughts regarding cause and effect, simple counting, and the conservation of matter,” for example hunger being the cause leading to crying as the effect. Sometimes people also think of scenarios in images rather than words. They mentally compare the shapes of objects and visually observe the situation. Also we sometimes struggle to express our thoughts and to “find the right words” that match our thoughts, in which condition we try to think of other modes of communication to convey our message. Furthermore, today with the new discoveries and advances in technology, we are able to create highly reliable translations from one language to another except poetry or prose for example. This depicts how one is not confined by one’s language rather one should ‘continually strive’ to search for better methods to express one’s