Re:Language Is the Scaffold of the Mind
by DonaldPShimoda on Friday September 27, 2019 @06:00PM
(#21096652)
"In the end we shall make thought-crime literally impossible"
To accomplish this successfully depends upon a strong interpretation of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis: that your language determines your thought. Most linguists disagree with this principle. Just because you have no word for a chair does not mean you couldn't use one, and just because you have no word for love doesn't mean you can't feel it.
(However, a weakened from of the hypothesis — that language merely influences your thought — is frequently accepted.)
It's also worth pointing out that not all people think explicitly in words. Such a person would be impervious to the Party's methods of thought-control, I think.
To accomplish this successfully depends upon a strong interpretation of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis: that your language determines your thought. Most linguists disagree with this principle. Just because you have no word for a chair does not mean you couldn't use one, and just because you have no word for love doesn't mean you can't feel it.
(However, a weakened from of the hypothesis — that language merely influences your thought — is frequently accepted.)
It's also worth pointing out that not all people think explicitly in words. Such a person would be impervious to the Party's methods of thought-control, I think.