Well…. the question… are our thoughts limited?
But… by what, you might ask? In which extent
are we capable of thinking about things we do
not have words for.
If this is the case, then the next question arises,
is what we are capable of thinking about
limited by the language we speak. Are there
things a German speaking person can think
about and a French speaking person not?
(Languages in this example chosen at random)
Speaking a language is much easier then translating
between languages. Words in one language may not
have an equivalent in an other language, or with a
slightly different meaning. Sometimes translating
between languages means losing information.
For example, the Swedish word “farmor” translates
to “grandmother”, but the Swedish word “mormor”
does too. “farmor” means your father’s mother, and
“mormor” means your mother’s mother. But in some
languages, like English, German or Dutch, there is
only one word referring to both.
Another example, the word “siblings”, in German
“Geschwister”, has no equivalent word in Dutch.
Or the dutch word “neef” which could translate to
both cousin and nephew.
These things make translating between those languages
difficult, but could it also mean, there are more complex
concepts of which there is no word in some languages,
and what would it mean for someone speaking those
languages. Would it limit their capability of thinking
about those languages?
Another question is, even if there are words for the
same concepts in two languages, what influence does
the language have on what people think about the concept?