In my last post, I wrote about the connections between language and thought, ie. linguistic relativity / determinism. In today’s highly globalized world, languages get mixed and evolve at a much faster pace than ever before. English, for instance, is no longer only divided into British, American, Canadian and Australian English; we could say that there…
Tag: spanish
Languages: linguistic relativity, words vs. thought
One of the most intriguing concepts in linguistics is the so-called Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, or linguistic relativity principle. Simply put, it states that the language we speak can influence the way we think. Another common name for this theory is linguistic determinism. There are some subtleties in the usage of these different names (no pun intended),…
Languages: life, evolution, death and extinction
To call a language “dead” is often an exaggeration. Languages seldom really die; they evolve, and sometimes they fade out of usage. Latin, for instance, is usually deemed to be a dead language, but this is not the case. To begin with, Latin is still the official language of the Vatican, and while catholic functions…