Question

There is no question that some languages capture, in a single word, ideas that in other languages can only be described with a long phrase. One example is the German word "Schadenfreude," which translates as "a feeling of joy that comes from learning about another person‘s troubles." Do you think this difference matters for cognition – so that people who know this word can think more efficiently, or more effectively, than people who don’t know this word? If so, how is this different from the hypothesis offered years ago by Whorf?

Answer 1

We as people speak different languages in different parts of the world. The different languages which we speak are all unique in its own way some way or the other . This entry will contain more in depth information about various languages and also how learning new languages may influence cognition.

Every language is having a set of principles as well as patterns which help people follow a guideline while learning a particular language.Another important factor about languages is following the syntax. The syntax is a set of rules which organizes a sentence in a sequence.However, the syntax may vary for different languages . For example the syntax for the French language and syntax for the English language are different.Benjamin Worf believed that language made our thoughts shape in a certain manner he called it linguistic relativity. He spoke about how there were even differences in languages while describing a certain event. For example while describing a event in the English language you mention the name of the doer ("Donald made a mistake") rather then just saying mistakes were made. Whereas if you are speaking in a Spanish or Japanese language they prefer to not use the name of the doer while describing an incident or event.

In this case of the German word one may say that Language does have quite an effect on cognition . This is because some of the habits which we are acquiring through our language is irreversible as per Worf's theory. This means that your thinking pattern will remain the same , as when you learned the language at first. For instance, a speaker whose native language is Japanese will stick with the traditional ideas associated with the Japanese language. On the other hand a native speaker of the English language would stick with traditional ideas of the English Language.

A reasonable point which could be made is that language is leading us to a path of what we are paying attention to , and it is believed that it is attention which is actually playing a role in influencing Cognition and not language .Its crucial to understand that when it comes to attention there maybe certain criteria involved  and this criteria may reduce the influence of language.This proves that , yes language has a pretty relevant impact on cognition but it is certainly not irreversible as Whorf''s Theory. Another important aspect to understand here is that it is your experience which is influencing your way of thinking , and your way of thinking depends on what you are paying attention to.