Language is a method of human communication which uses words, either spoken or written, to pass across meaningful messages. Linguists have been engaged in an endless debate regarding its origin, but one of the things that they have all come to agree upon is its importance and significance to man. There have been arguments put forth to support linguistic determinism by many distinguished scholars, as well as those who rule out any relation between thought and language. However, I am of the opinion that language influences but does not determine how people think.
Languages vary in many ways, from simple concepts like use of tense to more complex forms like word formation. A language like English and say also for example, German, has a vast vocabulary which covers almost all areas of human existence from science to religion, philosophy to medicine. This is owing to the fact that most of the work done in these areas is by people who used these languages. Many languages from Africa and Asia lack vocabulary in scholarly subjects. This does affect how people think as those using ‘elite’ languages are inclined to widen their scope and learn more about these words. Their curiosity is also aroused by the expansive vocabulary and they are more likely to learn new concepts that are vividly and explicitly described in their languages.
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People who use languages that have a vocabulary that is expansive are also more likely to have a broader understanding of things. A good example would be languages that describe a woman’s beauty in very many words depending on her age, skin colour, marital status, height and size and have different words to describe all these as many African languages do or a language that describes a clolour in many different words depending on its shade as Russian does. People using this language are more likely to think more critically of something as opposed to those that have one uniform name for a wide range of the same thing.
However, language does not determine thought. Earlier men, whose language was elementary still lived a full life and came up with important inventions that included tools, painting and fire. Also in the case of a second language, for example, a native African who learns French, the African is more likely to process his thoughts in his native language after which he translates it to the learned language. This will happen in spite of the native language not having the words to describe the phenomenon the speaker would want to describe.
Language is important to man and is closely related to their thought processes but it does not by itself determine or limit a man’s scope of thought.
