How does the way in which we describe something affect the way we see it?

How does the way in which we describe something affect the way we see it?

Language is a very important part of every human being. Language is the way we put our thoughts into words. Without language we wouldn’t be able to express ourselves so easily. Thus without language, we can’t have an education, get a job, have a social life, etc. language is so fundamental to our experience and is so deeply a part of every human being that it is actually extremely hard to imagine life without language. Language is a basic mean of communication and without language we won’t be able to communicate with one another. Language is more then just words, it’s a culture and so there are thousands of languages in the world. It is also true that two people speaking in two different languages do think to some extent, differently. A word in one language won’t have an equal in another language as the people speaking that language are from another culture and don’t find it necessary to use that word. Hence every translation of a word will never give you the exact meaning of the word because every individual language is clouded by the word.
The way in which we describe things definitely affects the way we see it as language shapes thought. Language plays a major role in the way we see things. When we see something, we name it and begin to describe it. That description is imprinted in our minds and whenever we think of that thing we think of its description. It is then that description that determines the way we see that thing eg. When one sees a zebra, one describes it as white with black stripes and so one sees the zebra as black with white stripes but if one describes it as a black zebra with white stripes then one begins to see it as a black with white stripes.
Sometimes we only see that that we want to see or that that is important to us. When we describe something, it is obvious that we have noticed that thing and thus perceived it. This thing therefore in some way becomes important to us and we then begin to see that thing in a particular way but something that we haven’t described is something that we haven’t noticed or that isn’t important to us and so we conveniently ignore that thing. In this way we don’t see that thing at all. This can also be seen as confirmation bias which is a type of thinking where one tends to notice what confirms one’s belief and ignore, overlook and undervalue what’s contradictory to his or her belief.
We describe something according to how we think that thing is and so our description of that thing is actually describing the way we see that thing. eg. a painting might have a different meaning to me as it will to someone else. Each one sees things differently and so one painting can have several interpretations. The way I see the painting is actually the way I describe it. If I describe the brown and blue in a painting as sand and sea then I begin to see it as sand and see but that does not mean that it is sand and sea for everyone. That is the way I perceive the painting and my perception leads me to my truth. thus for me the truth is that the brown in the painting is sand and the blue is the sea. Someone else might see the same painting and say that the brown and blue in the painting are life and death. That’s the way he or she describes the painting and thus sees it. His or her perception of the painting leads her to her truth which is different from my truth. It is our descriptions and perceptions that are different and so the way we see things and our personal truth’s are also different.
Language can be interpreted in many different ways eg. The meaning of love is very different for a 4 year old then for a 40 year old. The 4 year old might describe his love for a pencil while a 40 year old will probably describe his love for a woman. The boy sees love as a feeling you have for a material possession as he hasn’t understood the deep meaning of love like the 40 year old for whom love is all about a woman. In this way the way they describe love differs and thus the way they see love too differs.
Reality is determined by the language you speak. Through this you can give meaning to the world around you. Without language thought is meaningless as one can only express their thoughts through language. It is difficult to decide whether thoughts come first or language but it is definite that one cannot exist without the other.
If something is described to us in an ambiguous manner with ambiguous language, we begin to see that thing in that way. If the description is unclear then the way we see it will also be unclear. Eg. If someone sees a girl and tries to describe her to me by telling me that there was something on her head, I would begin to wonder what she meant by something as the language is ambiguous and unclear and I won’t be able to picture her clearly.
In ‘OW DOES OUR LANGUAGE SHAPE THE WAY WE THINK?’ Lera Boroditsky states, “Clearly, languages require different things of their speakers. Does this mean that the speakers think differently about the world? Do English, Indonesian, Russian, and Turkish speakers end up attending to, partitioning, and remembering their experiences differently just because they speak different languages? For some scholars, the answer to these questions has been an obvious yes. Just look at the way people talk, they might say. Certainly, speakers of different languages must attend to and encode strikingly different aspects of the world just so they can use their language properly.” Thus many scholars agree that people that speak different languages remember their experiences differently. People depend a lot on language and language usually shapes the way a person thinks. So you can say that people speaking different languages, do think differently. The important role of language in our lives influences many things in our lives including the way we think. Language determines the way we describe things which in turn affects the way we see things.


1. http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/boroditsky09/boroditsky09_index.html