[UA] OT: Thought and Language

[Antonio Rodriguez]

I've taught courses in Programming Language Concepts, in which the students
analyze and see what a certain language design decision means to future
developments in the language.

One of the questions I like to give on an exam is if thought is influenced
by language. I am of the belief that it is, in so much as to think requires
that you have an idea of the concept of what you're thinking about, and that
idea is mainly expressable in words (maybe not as few words as we'd like,
but still expressable). Not to say that thought is only influenced by
language, but it is the major component.

Still, I've had discussions with students that have provided me with valid
counter-arguments that, though they haven't convinced me fully that it isn't
so, are very good. I'm sorry to say that I don't have most of these exams at
hand, or I'd type up some.

Of course, my exams are of the 6-questions, answer-any-5 type, so lots of
them just skip over that particular question. . .8-/

Antonio Rodriguez

> -----Original Message-----
> From: ua-admin at lists.uchicago.edu [mailto:ua-admin at lists.uchicago.edu]On
> Behalf Of Mario Magallanes
> Sent: Sunday, July 22, 2001 6:02 PM
> To: ua at lists.uchicago.edu
> Subject: Re: [UA] OT: Thought and Language
>
>
>
>
> Cassady Toles escribió:
> >
> >
> > For the record, I think interchangable in either words or
> images depending
> > what I'm focusing on or doing at the time.  I usually think in english,
> > although when I'm thinking about relationships I tend to think
> in Spanish
> > (or pig spanish--Mario can tell you how bad my Spanish is).
>
> Hey, I doubt my english is much better... :)
>
> I guess I think with words or images, depending on my current endeavors.
> I tend to focus on images while working on 'creative' endeavours .
> Sometimes I switch to english, particularly with short phrases, or when
> thinking about certain concepts that aren't defined in spanish - at
> least, not defined with a single word. English has an amazing vocabulary
> - there seems to be a word for everything.
>
> >
> > Most real-world magical and spiritual traditions place great value on
> > visualization, but I won't say how "useful" that is for fear of people
> > thinking I'm a freak....
>
> What? In this list? :)
>
> Mario Magallanes
> --
> "If you still believe that the book has no more explicit depiction of
> heterosexual activity than that, however, I suggest you take another
> look at the disturbing encounter between Sam and Shelob, the huge and
> evil female spider, at the end of Book Four."
> -Andrew O'Hehir (http://www.salon.com)
>
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