Hi everyone! I'm currently reading 'Totalitarian Language-Orwell's Newspeak and its nazi and commnist antecedents.' The author, John Wesley is interrogating what happened to language manipulations after second world warand also wonders if not certain principles were involuntarily adopted by the contemporary world.
How much does language in today's world affect what we are able to conceive? I am thinking about this a lot--for example the absence of certain words in other languages. There are annecdotes of native american tribes which don't have a word for killing. Another idea is the movie 'the invention of lying.' But seriously, if we are never introduced to a 'thought', how likely is it that we are able to conceive of it?
Anyways, there are so many thoughts to explore--so I'm curious how you experience language today-do you think the absence of words would indeed eliminate the existence of the thought? I.e. had I never learned about sex from my environment would I have naturally discovered it?
How do facebook statuses and twitter affect the way we conceive language?