Myselfless
Minimalising and streamlining just does not happen in processes and objects. We see it in languages too. Long phrases become shorter. Long words are chopped and rearranged. And the SMS language has achieved further milestones in this arduous task.
Overused, abused and overhyped. The word we constantly use to identify ourselves, to describe ourselves… The word I. In the languages I am aware of, like English it is spoken quickly and is of single syllable. Whereas words referring to the second or third person is usually longer and takes more time to deliver.
Besides the overuse, there could be another reason behind this relationship. May be we are supposed to give less time to ourselves while talking about ourselves and give more stress and mental space when talking about others.
If it is so, in the languages where this relation is swapped i.e. first person reference is longer than the second or third person reference, does it reflect something different about the culture. Do people give more or less importance to themselves there? Are egoes bigger?
If one starts to speak those languages, would it alter his behaviour?
Can language, the result of culture, history and heritage, in turn affect the future cultures?
January 23rd, 2009 at 12:57 pm
Great food for thought!
This reference to “language affecting perception and vice-versa”, reminds me of a book I read in the KMC/library. I was bored of the color and form course in 2nd yr. Graphic Design and decided to learn something more than what was already ‘taught’. The book (can’t remember the name) was about color and cultures. It mentioned that we, as in humans who know at least one language; recognize colors based on the complexity of our language. That is, we only recognize explicit colors/shades if our language has a word for it. There is more to it, but this illustrates my point.
Hindi, for example, is very limited when it comes to naming colors. The general trend is to associate the object’s name with the color. “Gulaabi” for instance, refers to ‘color of the rose’ and not pink!
Similar perception trends must be visible in other areas of cognition as well.
January 25th, 2009 at 2:26 pm
Notable exception to the languages being Sanskrit. The ‘I’ is referred as Aham; whereas ‘he’ is Sa: – the exact opposite of English. So let’s all speak Sanskrit hmm?
Very interesting and well-constructed observation btw :)
February 12th, 2009 at 1:05 am
Abhishek – very interesting. shud look this book up in KMC! Thanks a ton for the comment!