Meaning, thought and reality: How categories influence thinking.

MEANING, THOUGHT AND REALITY

How categories influence thinking

Thais SouzaVinícius André

COGNITIVE SEMANTICS

The main principles:

- Language is a way of expressing speaker’s concepts of the world

- Language is acquired and contextual

- The ability to use language is based on general cognitive resources

Theories Language: a system of symbols related to entities

in the world (as they are represented mentally) and to connections between them.

Thoughts are “inner states” and “inner representations”. (Devitt, M.; Sterelny, K., 1987)

Let’s consider the phrase:

the tall blond man with one black shoe.

In this context, “the man” and “him” may refer to the same person. It’s the brain that makes the connections, not English language itself.

• “Mentalese”, the language of thought. (Pinker, 1994)

Pinker suggests that “people do not think in English or Chinese… they think in a language of thought.”

Language vs Thought

Linguistic Determinism Linguistic Relativism

vsthoughts are determined by

lexicalized concepts (vocabulary, grammar)

differences among languages cause differences in the

thoughts of their speakers

Thought influences language by “our functioning in the world”. (Lakoff, 1987)

Experiential Realism Objective Realism

vsconceptual structures

depend on and develop from our bodily experiences

reality exists beyond individual experiences but can be

captured regardless

Language and Reality

Reality: individual’s experience or world perception

Linguistic Categorization

Our cognition develops concepts (mental representations of the world) based on our experience and then we use language to refer to these cognitive concepts. This is the linguistic process of Categorization.

BUT Categorizing can be problematic!

Is this a cup or a bowl?

Reference or Representation?

Referential view is focused on direct relationships between expressions (words, sentences) and things in the world (realist/determinist view). It’s a study of Formal Semantics.

Representational view is focused on how relationships between expressions (words, sentences) and things in the world are mediated by the mind. It’s a study of Cognitive Semantics.

Adapted from Francis Bond

Deixis: Language referring to reality

Any linguistic element that needs extra-linguistic context to be properly interpreted is deictic.

There are many types of deictic elements (person, time, space, discourse, social status):

You, me, this, that, today, tomorrow, here, there and so on.

Adapted from Francis Bond

Social Deixis

French tu and vous for you.

Tu: the familiar form of addressing to somebody in a similar social situation;

Vous: the honorific (formal) or polite form of addressing someone.

http://www.french-linguistics.co.uk/grammar/tu_and_vous.shtml

What are social similar conditions?• Age;

• role in the current “speech context” (shopkeeper vs. customer; teacher vs. pupil);

• Job status (junior vs. boss);

• Where the person you're speaking to fits in your "social network“;

• How well you know the person you're speaking with;

• Your attitude towards the person you're speaking with (respect / disdain).

http://www.french-linguistics.co.uk/grammar/tu_and_vous.shtml

Social Deixis

Tanaka-san-ga kudasaimashita

(addressee and subject honorification)

Tanaka-san-ga kudasatta

(subject honorification)

Tanaka-kun-ga kuremashita

(addressee honorification)

Tanaka-kun-ga kureta

(no honorification)

Tanaka gave it to me

Examples by Francis Bond

Language Relativity• The language we think in makes some concepts easy to

express, but others hard. That is why it is difficult to translate some words:

Iktsuarpok (Inuit) To go outside to check if anyone is coming.

Kyoikumama (JP): A mother who relentlessly pushes her children toward academic achievement.

Saudade (PT): One of the most beautiful of all words, translatable or not, this word “refers to the feeling of longing for something or someone that you love and which is lost.” Fado music, a type of mournful singing, relates to saudade. 

Cafuné (PT-br): The act of tenderly running one’s fingers through someone’s hair.

German is though to be a useful language for philosophical scholarship

“It's amazing how I can feel sorry for you and hate youat the same time. I'm sure there's a German word for it.”

Lisa to her brother from Simpsons episode How Munched is That Birdie in the Window?

Do you know many different words for “snow” “Eskimos” have?

Do you know many different words for “snow” “Eskimos” have?

Shockingly 50, according to anthropologist Franz Boa, but numbers may vary.

Do we consider “ice” as a type of snow?

“Eskimo” Languages

“Eskimo” Languages

- There are different varieties. The most usual are Inuit and Yupik, but both have many different dialects.

- The common aspect is polysynthesis:

The process of encoding a huge amount of information in one word by plugging various suffixes onto a base word.

A few examples:

Aqilokoq: softly falling snow;

Piegnartoq: the snow [that is] good for driving sled;

Matsaaruti: wet snow that can be used to ice a sleigh’s runners;

Pukak: the crystalline powder snow that looks like salt

Utuqaq: ice that lasts year after year;

Siguliaksraq: the patchwork layer of crystals that forms as the sea begins to freeze;

Auniq: ice that is filled with holes, like Swiss cheese.

Is language a consequence of reality?

Languages evolve to suit the ideas and needs that are most crucial to the lives of their speakers:

“These people need to know whether ice is fit to walk on or whether you will sink through it. It’s a matter of life or death” (Willem de Reuse, linguist at the University of North Texas)

Conclusion

Linguistic elements refer to real objects/beings (or their representations) but cognition interprets and differentiates them,

identifying them in the world.

ReferencesFLOHR. Birgitt. The Relationship between Thought and Reality in Cognitive

Semantics. Available at https://www.itp.uni-hannover.de/~flohr/papers/m-mod-engl-lang1.pdf

______. Cognitive Semantics. Wikipedia. Available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_semantics

BOND, Francis. Meaning, Thought and Reality. Available at http://compling.hss.ntu.edu.sg/courses/hg2002/pdf/lec-02-reality.pdf

ROBSON, David. There really are 50 Eskimo words for ‘snow’ in New Scientist; Available at http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/there-really-are-50-eskimo-words-for-snow/2013/01/14/e0e3f4e0-59a0-11e2-beee-6e38f5215402_story.html

When do I use tu and when do I use vous? Available at http://www.french-linguistics.co.uk/grammar/tu_and_vous.shtml

20 awesomely untranslatable words from around the world. Available at http://matadornetwork.com/abroad/20-awesomely-untranslatable-words-from-around-the-world/

Access on 05.17th.15