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> your language affects your world view As a linguist, my personal opinion is that it tinges your world view, but does not have a large influence on it. I only
by mchaver 5y ago
> your language affects your world view
As a linguist, my personal opinion is that it tinges your world view, but does not have a large influence on it. I only adhere to a very light interpretation of Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. tldr: culture is a much stronger influence on world view, it also strongly influences language.
A simple, but clear example is rhyme. By having words that rhyme in your language, you are more likely to pair them together in a song or a poem, like love and dove, but these words don't rhyme in Chinese so you a Chinese speaker is less likely to pair them when rhyme is needed. It also affects word play. A counter argument would be imperfect rhyme, the culture or desired effect forces a rhyme on words. The speaker finds a why to manipulate the language for their needs.
A stronger argument argument against Sapir-Whorf is that there are native speakers of a language that have very different cultures like native speaker of American English and native speakers of Indian English. They both speak English, but have very different world views, and change the language to suit their communication needs. The opposite can be true as well, speakers of different languages, but related cultures can shape their languages in similar ways. For example, many Singaporeans are native or high level English speakers and the language has evolved patterns and communication styles found in Chinese languages.