This paper seeks to find out the ways in which language shapes and constrain thought. Language is a gift of nature to human beings. The contribution of language towards molding the human mind is among the greatest things that must be cherished. People tend to think in different ways despite the language that a person speaks. It is difficult to understand a person's thoughts due to language modification. There is also a difference between the language taught in school and the indigenous languages spoken by people throughout the world (Carruthers, 2008) . These differences, therefore, affect the way in which people think in their minds. The different languages in the world are responsible for the variation in culture.
The question of whether or not language shapes and constrain thought narrows to the mere fact that the world is diverse. Martí (2017) argues that languages vary from one culture to another or from one place to another. In English, a speaker can modify a specific word keeping in mind the tense of that specific word and make appropriate pronunciation. In other cultures, a speaker is required to alter a certain word to take care of gender. Such is never the case in other parts of the world such as Asia where a word may never be changed. The variation in language, therefore, is responsible for the diverse ways in which people experience life. This is evident in the communication manner of people throughout the world that is characterized by different accents.
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There are people especially those from a scholarly background that are of a different opinion. Henderson (2017) is of the opinion that language does not mold the thoughts of a person. Such individuals emphasize that the difference in language is insignificant. They argue that the structure of the doing words may vary in different languages but that does not justify the suggestion that a certain language does not pay attention to a particular thing, instead they may not have brought it up in their communication. The language may be different across various cultures but thoughts are most likely to be similar. People shift attention to various things differently throughout the world. Carruthers (2008) illustrates that there is a great possibility that one would master a new language with ease if all people shift attention to a specific thing. It is never an easy task to learn some Greek if one is from Africa. It requires a lot of time which means attention and repetition must be practiced by the learner.
Neuliep (2017) points out that there are different ways in which people perceive color in the world. For example, one place in the world could have ten terminologies for color whereas in another place in the world the terminologies for color may be less or more than ten. People from various cultures, therefore, have different ways in which they focus on color due to varying perception. The way a language is framed goes a long way to affect the thought of the person. This is evident for instance in the case where it is difficult for an English child to count whereas it is simpler for a child from China which is in Asia. This is attributed to the fact that English numbers are not transparent to the degree to which the Chinese numbers are.
People from different cultural diversities throughout the world use language to communicate about the environment. The aspect of the environment to communicate depends on the importance of the phenomenon to the people. People, therefore, do not have to paraphrase a certain word while communicating since the word refers to a specific aspect of the environment that members of a specific language understand (Henderson, 2017) . Lexicons vary from one language to another. They may be added or removed from a particular language depending on various circumstances.
The world accommodates various cultures with different aspects that must be captured by language . Ahearn (2016) suggests such aspects end up being part and parcel of the structure of a specific language. In the event that sentences and other grammatical adjustments are made to a particular language, they must be included. Consider a language in part of the world with five noun groups. The nouns will be placed in the different groups randomly. Such grouping of nouns in parts of the word is done in a logical and rational manner. The structure of a particular language must also take into consideration time. This is because people have different thoughts concerning time in various cultures throughout the world. This is evident in that English has divided time into three phases; future, present, and the past. This is totally a different case in other parts of West Africa where the past is divided into four phases ranging from the most recent back to the past. There are also languages in other parts of the world such as Asia where there is no structure in their language.
Conclusion
Language plays a key role in influencing the way people invest attention and perceive different things. When a person makes a statement, it is important to focus on the context of such a statement. Language has been suggested to affect the way people perceive color in various parts of the world as evident in this paper. The different languages, as well as the environment in various parts, have also been viewed as a contributor to molding the way of thinking of the people. This paper attempts to explain ways in which language shapes and constrains thought.
References
Ahearn, L. M. (2016). Living language: An introduction to linguistic anthropology (Vol. 2). John Wiley & Sons.
Carruthers, P. (2008). Language in cognition. In The Oxford handbook of philosophy of cognitive science .
Henderson, W. (2017). Economics and language . Routledge.
Martí, L. (2017). Inclusive plurals and the theory of number. Linguistic Inquiry , 1-76.
Neuliep, J. W. (2017). Sapir–Whorf Hypothesis. The International Encyclopedia of Intercultural Communication , 1-5.
