Topics Language

Question If language limits the things we can think about, and we can only think about things that our language is capable of discussing, how then do we create new terms that describe things previously not incorporated into the language?

Accepted:
February 9, 2012

Comments

Just because we use language to express our thoughts, it does not follow that the limits of language are the limits of our thought. For one thing, we can and do change and extend language to incorporate new ideas that cannot fit into the existing language. It is rather like the ways in which science changes. Given the theory of a particular period, an alternative way of looking at the world is literally incomprehensible, but eventually the old theory is seen as having so many holes in it that a new one is required, and the crucial terms in the old theory are often changed or stretched to make sense of the new theory. If language was fixed and immutable, then this would present huge problems for changes in thought. Fortunately for the possibility of development in our ideas, our language can also develop.

Question If language limits the things we can think about, and we can only think about things that our language is capable of discussing, how then do we create new terms that describe things previously not incorporated into the language? Accepted:February 9, 2012

Question If language limits the things we can think about, and we can only think about things that our language is capable of discussing, how then do we create new terms that describe things previously not incorporated into the language?

Accepted:
February 9, 2012