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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
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
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:
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.