TOK essay- Can language be said to hinder thought?

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Can language be said to hinder thought?

Samir Kothari 11.2

TOK Essay

Language is not just a tool for expression; it is not just a vehicle for the transmission of knowledge, its more than that. Language shapes our thoughts in profound ways.  It can be defined as a conventional code of symbols, which allows a sender to convey a message that can be understood by a receiver. We use language for several purposes, such as expressing our feelings, writing literature, describing things etc. However, language is not perfect, it has its limitations. Language hinders thought.

Apart from the problems of the meaning of words in language, such as its vagueness (words such as big and small are vague since it does not provide information of how big or small), ambiguity (possibility of having a        different meaning, can never be sure what the sentence/word means or is intended to mean) which is widely used by politicians, secondary meaning (the connotation or denotation of a word and the usage of euphemisms), metaphors and irony; which makes it difficult to convey thought. Language hinders and changes thought itself. Language does this by, putting labels (assigning to a category) on things and people (stereotypes) and linguistic relativity (reference to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis).

Labels have its pros and cons, for example, if we didn’t have a word for sand, we would have to identify each grain individually, or other objects such as rocks, electronics, clothes etc. Communication becomes easier with labels, however, with labels we tend to generalize. These generalizations often become substitutes for thought and experience. It blocks the sense of an item or person’s true individualities by categorizing them. When generalizations are employed, labels are used as the sole source of information about other people; they limit our understanding and describe only one aspect of a person. When labels are used on people, they are called stereotypes. These stereotypes limit our view on people, therefore limiting our thought. A stereotype is an idea or belief (often inaccurate) about what another person is like, based on what group that person belongs to. Stereotypes are a type of prejudice. Stereotypes arise when we make assumptions about members in a particular group solely because of the reason that they belong to that group. Stereotypes are widely shown on the basis of nationality. Some common stereotypes are: Asians have high IQs. They are smarter than most in Math and Science. These people are more likely to succeed in school, French are romantic, Irish are alcoholics, Russians are violent, African Americans play basketball, and Immigrants have poor English etc. However, stereotypes hold some truth in them. For example, if you go in a French restaurant, the environment id likely to be romantic. However to distinguish between harmless generalization and a stereotype, it must be known that stereotypes mostly exaggerate the negative features of a certain group.

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Linguistic relativity also known as the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (however this is a misnomer) states that language determines our experience of reality, and we can see and think only what our language allows us to see and think. Linguistic relativity is the linguistic theory that the semantic structure of a language shapes or limits the ways in which a speaker forms conceptions of the world. Since the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis claims that language determines the way we think, it can be defined as a form of language determinism. A popular example would be about the Inuit. They are said to ...

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