Does Language Shapes How We Think?

DOES LANGUAGE SHAPE HOW WE THINK?

From my point of view, language definitely affects the way we think. When we acquire the native language we are influenced by a lot of sources to learn it, those make us comprehend the world in a certain manner; what I mean is that all what is transmitted through the language implies more than just words or sentences, it carries out intentions, perceptions and other significant things that allow us to understand our surroundings in a particular way.

Learning a foreign language also implies involvement with all what is behind of it; doing that, it is possible to communicate in the right way. Further than that, when we are learning a new language, we are consciously pretending to convey meaning in order to transmit information; but we are doing more than that, we are carrying out a whole process in our mind which not only want to make us able to express but also allows us to adapt new concepts as something applicable in our realities more than in our speech.

I understand how linguistic relativity is related with the relation between language and the way we think, and I can assume as probable from one point of view; the one which allows us to understand the language as a complex system, which is involved with a lot of things that influences and affects our entire perception of all what is around us. But, I also have some problems to understand what happens in some cases where linguistic relativity seems not to be applicable, for example; the fact that Spanish speakers and English speakers have a different way to express gender in their languages, does not mean to me that we as Spanish Speakers give more importance than English Speakers to the differences between male and female, for the fact of making a differentiation with the variation in the words. Even when it is undeniable to think that it has to deal with some cultural and sociable implications, since behind words there is a story which can be related with that, it may not be always the case.

Taken the principle of the linguistic relativity we have to assume that if a word does not exist, then the concept of that word cannot be contained in our mind; but is that really the way how it works? I have my doubts, I personally think that we are able to understand many things which are perceptible in our real world even when we do not know the word itself, we can create one concept based on the information proved by our senses or based in previous related experiences concerned to the term.

The fact that one word doesn’t exist in a language does not necessarily implies that the people who talk the language cannot understand the concept behind the word, it can means that the concept wasn’t so necessary, so important or so used to be created. So, even when the connection between language and thought is visible and clear, not all which is in the mind has been included inside the language, according to my analysis.

...