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tumblr post by seokoilua: it’s so wild to me that some people just speak english all the time… like they can’t switch it off to speak in a #real language when they need to
Although I don’t think English is that great of a language overall, imo it’s very very powerful.
What it lacks in logical consistency it makes up for with lots and lots of words (and idioms) that mean similar things but are slightly different for different use cases.
It has a very powerful toolbox for describing things in a very direct, specific manner.
Really? My impression is that most of the time English is more imprecise with the meaning of words than my native language, and tends to overload them a lot
About the only language with more flexibility is Mandarin Chinese.
Its pretty much the defining feature of English. It has so many shared words, rules and logic and can borrow so effortlessly. That realistically speaking so long as you understand the language you can do some wild stuff.
The concept of “English doesn’t have a word to express x, y, z.” Is basically nonsense. English can absorb and adapt anything to it self.
It’s both why it’s such a mess and frequently clowned on as a language as well as its greatest strength.
English is just the borg of language.
I do recognize and appreciate the flexibility of English, but isn’t that opposite to the “precision”? (I’m sure there’s a more appropriate linguistic term but that’s not my geek area)
As you said, all the borrowing allows it to express almost anything, but very often in ad-hoc, incoherent ways.
Btw, I didn’t mean that English doesn’t have a word to express X, just that several, very specific words in Italian often get translated to the same, broader-meaning English word (that can then become more specific with extra adjectives/qualifiers/whatever)
very specific words in Italian often get translated to the same, broader-meaning English word
That sounds like a translation issue.
Language shapes the way people interpret the world. If you think in Italian then this precision is defined by that language and may or may not exists.The article you mention states:
The strongest interpretation of the linguistic relativity hypothesis, also known as the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis or “Whorfianism”, posits that a language’s vocabulary (among other features) shapes or limits its speakers’ view of the world. This interpretation is widely criticized by
I’d add you don’t think in any language. You express yourself in a language.
a multilingual can write what you wrote. Monolinguals are shaped by the limits of one language (and mostly a poor utilitarian corner of that language.) They can’t think of something with which they have no words for or don’t even feel like they’re missing words for something they need to communicate
Yeah, so that’s the version of the hypothesis that’s been abandoned, from what I understand.
