Does Language Shape Our thought?

Language is a representation of our mind, whether it shapes our thought depends on our use of language.

When we are trying to express our ideas, we are thinking in terms of the language that will be used. However, when we are just thinking without expression by language, language does not take part in it.

There are different aspects where language can shape our thought.

Time perspective

Our perception of time is influenced by how our language describe time. Languages which do not distinguish present and future tenses treat future as temporally closer to present, so their speakers can more easily be future-oriented. However, in the view of social psychology, time perspective is a non-conscious process, so languages may not always take part in it and thus shape our time perspective.

A similar aspects to time perspective is spatial perspective, which is either relative or absolute in direction. It can be analyzed in the same way.

Sequence of information extraction

Depending on the word order of languages, information are extracted in corresponding sequence. A language with the word order of subject-verb-object will search for subject first, then verb and finally object, which shows how language shapes our sequence of information extraction. However, when speakers are asked to describe the content of a picture by sign language, which has no limitation on word order, all of them are presenting in the word order of subject-object-verb.

Whether language shape our thought depends on the usage of language, and since we communicate with each other by language, it is more likely that language is shaping our thought.